


Messily Ever Aftermath

by Geckinator3000



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Character, Attempt at Humor, Character Development, Comfort, Dragons, Eldritch, Fantasy, Fluff, Future, Happy Ending, Healing, LGBTQ Themes, Monsters, Multi, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:07:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 65,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25443646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geckinator3000/pseuds/Geckinator3000
Summary: Horde Prime is finally dead and the war on Etheria is over.....but there's one hell of a mess to clean up! The physical destruction is no problem for She-Ra and her merry band; it's the emotional trauma and relationships that are going to take the most work. Decades of war have left their mark, and the burning question is: How profound can healing be?
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Hordak (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), Hordak & Scorpia (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 65
Kudos: 135





	1. The Day After The World Nearly Ended

Dawn broke over the Whispering Woods of Etheria, and the air was golden and heavier with magic than it had been in over a thousand years. Adora was first up, wakened by the rising sun. She rolled over, and sat up carefully to avoid disturbing Catra. She was still sleeping curled at her feet, tail twitching as she dreamed. Nearby, Melog purred softly. Swiftwind dozed with his head tucked under one wing, Bow and Glimmer tucked under the other.  
All around them, the Rebellion slumbered, surrounded by the wreckage of war and the mess of the previous night's wild victory celebrations. The War was over at last, but the aftermath still lay before them. For now though, for the first time in decades, all could truly sleep in peace.

Adora, however, had dreamed of being chased by endless iterations of Horde Prime. He kept changing bodies, changing faces, but he always had the same malevolent green eyes. She flinched instinctively as she glimpsed Hordak’s face out of the corner of her eye, and then relaxed as she remembered the events of the previous day. He looked so peaceful now, sprawled out on his back with his chest rising and falling steadily, and Entrapta asleep beside him with one lock of her hair coiled loosely around his wrist. They had been inseparable since the moment She-Ra had driven Prime from his mind.

The morning light softened the sharp edges of Hordak’s grim face, and Adora studied him for a moment, then glanced back at the sleeping Catra.  
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” she whispered to Melog, petting the soft fur behind their ears. “Crazy how the two of them nearly destroyed Etheria between them, but here they are! In the same camp with us!”  
Melog just looked up at her and purred louder.

  
Adora had always believed that Catra still had some good in her, even in her worst moments, but she had never expected that anything could change Hordak’s heart. Come to think of it, she had never really thought of him having a heart, let alone doing something as ordinary as sleeping, or as extraordinary as breaking through a lifetime of brainwashing to throw his own egomaniacal brother off the bridge of his ship to save his best friend. Clearly, Entrapta could see something in him that Adora had missed, and she found herself suddenly grateful for the enigmatic purple-haired princess's open-mindedness and relentless curiosity.  
Melog rested their head on her lap with their chin tilted just a little to the side so Adora could scratch them just where they liked it. She smiled and obliged. “What are the chances of all this even happening?” she murmured, half to them, half to herself. The chances of Entrapta meeting Hordak, the chances of the portal opening, the chances of Adora finding She-Ra’s sword in the Whispering Woods as she and Catra wrestled over control of a skiff they had stolen on a whim....all of it seemed so improbable and so extraordinary. Life had thankfully not turned out the way she had expected it to, not at all.

This drew her mind to her most pressing task: what to do with the clones. Some two thousand of them had been stranded nearby after the death of Prime, and almost all of them had immediately panicked and had a total, Wrong-Hordak level mental breakdown. Doubtless, there were thousands more stranded across Etheria and she dreaded to think of where they were now or what had happened to them. Bow and Entrapta had patched together a short transmission sent out via Prime’s now-defunct spires to announce across the planet that Prime was defeated, the war was over, and all clones should now be treated as non-hostile parties. It had been the best they could do, and afterward, they’d had to deal with “their” mob of clones. It had taken hours to round them up, console them, and find enough ground space for them to sleep. Their natural intelligence and amicable nature made this easier, but Adora was still daunted by the task of finding them more permanent accommodations. “Do you think they could be convinced to help with the reconstruction? Maybe keeping busy would make them feel a little better about all the horrible stuff that’s happened to them recently.” she mused to Melog.  
“Mrrf” said Melog, solemnly.

As she ruminated on this, she became aware of the uncomfortable feeling of being watched and looked up to see that Hordak was watching her warily through one slitted eye. Though neither his eyes nor his teeth glowed at present, Adora was still keenly aware of the formidable intelligence and strength Hordak possessed. He sat up and rose quietly to his feet, gently uncoiling Entrapta’s hair from his wrist, and stepped toward Adora. At nearly eight feet tall, he cut an imposing figure, even though she knew that in theory, he was on her side now. In theory.  
Adora’s spine stiffened and she stood up quickly. Was he really on her side? Could he really be trusted when just yesterday he had helped initiate the biggest disaster in Etherian history, regardless of his actions afterward? Instinctively, Adora reached out to touch her sword-bracelet, but Hordak merely looked her in the eye for a moment and said, very softly,  
“Adora. Thank you. Your actions have restored to me both my freedom and my dearest friend.”  
After Adora had stuttered that it was no problem, Hordak nodded and silently turned to sit back down next to Entrapta.

Wrong Hordak, who had now renamed himself Hermann, was still asleep on Entrapta’s other side. His ears were twitching back and forth in response to sounds nobody but himself could hear. Hordak watched him with his head tilted a little to one side. The two clones had been formally introduced to one another the previous evening, and Hordak had taken an immediate liking to Hermann the instant that he explained how he too had come to rebel against Horde Prime. They appeared to get along quite well although Adora suspected Hordak was perhaps a little jealous over his friendship with Entrapta. Shifting her position slightly, Adora was surprised to notice not only Catra’s ears swivel towards the sound of her movement, but Hordak’s also. He promptly noticed her astonished expression and scowled for a moment with a flash of white fangs before he paused, and then with great deliberation, wiggled one ear and then the other. Adora couldn’t help herself any longer: she laughed, loudly and suddenly.

Catra stirred, yawned, stretched, and then noticed Hordak and startled, just as Adora had minutes beforehand. Her tail bristled and her eyes widened enormously before she caught herself at the beginning of a hiss and regained her composure somewhat.  
“Adora, I know Hordak threw Prime off a bridge yesterday but seriously, why is he here? Last time I saw him in the Fright Zone, he tried to kill me.”

  
Hordak answered coldly, with a low, building snarl. “And the last time I saw you in the Fright Zone, Catra, I had just discovered that you sent Entrapta to Beast Island! I understand that you were also a part of the Rebellion against my brother and Entrapta has assured me that you have apologised to her for your despicable actions. Consequently, I will no longer be pursuing your demise, but I warn you, do not cross me ever again and especially...” he drew a breath, and there was now real anger in his voice, “...especially do not compromise the safety of Entrapta if you value your life.”

Melog was now at Catra’s side, both their tails lashing as she spat back, “I still don’t see why we should trust you! You were lucky that Adora was --” and here she was cut off by Bow placing his hand firmly over her mouth, which shortly resulted in him being firmly bitten on the arm.

Glimmer, now awake too, marched over, staring coldly and determinedly at the now enraged Hordak. Adora halted her with a very scathing don’t-you-dare stare, and instead, Glimmer sat down beside Bow with a loud huff. Thankfully, at that point, Entrapta finally woke up, which had the effect of instantly mollifying Hordak and defusing an enormous amount of tension with a single manic grin.

“Oh, good morning Princesses! Hi Hordak!” she said cheerfully, completely oblivious to the fact that she had just prevented a small and bloody war. She immediately turned to chatter animatedly to Hordak and Hermann, and Adora breathed a sigh of relief. Accommodating former sworn enemies in a time of peace was going to be difficult.

She absorbed herself for a moment in absentmindedly petting Melog again, until she overheard Entrapta say enthusiastically, “Hordak, do you think we could check out Prime’s ship today? I know She-Ra filled it with trees but there could still be so much data that we could learn from! Horde Prime’s former selves may contain the last surviving memories of entire civilizations, and of Etheria during the time of the First Ones!”

Adora froze in horror. “Horde....Prime’s...former...selves?” she questioned.  
“Yes, he had many bodies. They were in storage on his ship so that their memories could be accessed if Prime had need of them.” replied Hordak, looking rather harrowed. As someone who had spent the vast majority of his life either on a quiet, orderly ship or tinkering alone in a darkened laboratory, he found that being suddenly surrounded by people who were always asking questions rather challenging to his sanity. He was willing to tolerate Adora though, and after composing himself a little he said gravely “Entrapta is correct. We must go and investigate Prime’s ship today to gather any remaining information on the Horde and to ensure that all traces of Prime’s mind are truly gone. He has haunted this universe for over two thousand years and I will not be convinced that he is no longer a threat until I have demonstrable evidence to the contrary.”

  
Adora, Bow, Entrapta, and Catra were all listening attentively to this and sprang to their feet, all talking at once until Gimmer yelled “EVERYBODY STOP!”  
Adora braced herself for another of her “I’m-the-queen-here” speeches but instead Glimmer said, simply and firmly, “I’m going too. Scorpia, Frosta, Castaspella, and Perfuma will remain behind to watch over the clones. Catra, please ask Melog to stay with them in case something goes...wrong. Everyone else comes with us on Mara’s ship. Even you, Swiftwind. Your wings will be useful for examining some areas. Grab some food! There’s no time for breakfast. We need to scour Prime’s ship thoroughly.”  
She promptly turned on her heel, and with a glittering flip of her cape, she walked rapidly off in the direction of Mara’s ship, head held high.

  
“Well, I guess we’re having takeaways this morning?” shrugged Adora as she and the others fumbled quickly through their food supplies and leaped up to follow Glimmer.


	2. What We Found In the Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rebellion squad search Prime's ship for information, just in case someone escaped their notice. Or something.

The atmosphere inside Horde Prime’s ship could only be described as hair-raisingly eerie. Vaulted corridors now darkened and hopefully empty were distorted by enormous tree roots that crept snakelike along every available surface.   
“Adora, why did you have to fill this awful thing with trees instead of just, ya know, destroying it like a normal person?” complained Catra, trying very hard to conceal her fluffed-up tail.  
“I am not a normal person,” She-Ra replied sternly, with her radiant skin illuminating the surrounding area and her hair rippling in its usual majestic fashion despite the complete absence of any wind.  
“Come now, everyone, it will be a grand adventure!” Seahawk insisted, which had the effect of inspiring precisely no-one. Mermista glared at him.   
“Ugh. Let’s just get this over with,” she grumbled, and together they stepped into the grim darkness of Prime’s ship. 

King Micah and Glimmer made magic lanterns, but somehow their purple glow just made the corridors even more disconcerting. Hordak loomed ominously at the back of the party. Nobody wanted to walk near him except Hermann and Entrapta, who was tapping away thoughtfully at her compad.  
“Hey guys, I think that if we can get to the ship’s power source I might be able to fix our lighting problem. Hordak, do you know where it is?” Entrapta queried.  
“Certainly. I will lead the way,” he replied before striding into the darkness with Entrapta right on his heels, and Emily scuttling behind. The others hesitated a little, then followed, nervously.   
They found the generator room after five minutes of snaking their way through increasingly twisted corridors. The roots were much thinner and sparsely spread here, and between the efforts of them all, they were soon cleared off the generators. Hordak, Entrapta and Bow got to work. Twenty minutes, a lot of reconnected wires and some light cursing and swearing later, the generators hummed back to life. Elsewhere on the ship, wakened by the noise and light, something else also awoke. It opened up one green eye and then many more, and soon it came crawling, crawling, marching, slithering down those twisted corridors on hundreds of pairs of legs.

“Hooray, we have power again!” sang Entrapta, back in the generator room, climbing about rapidly and flipping switches. She checked the cracked screen of the ship’s power monitor and explained that although some of the ship’s wiring was too damaged to function, in most areas there would be at least some light. “Day one, post-war: I am on Prime’s ship and have figured out the rudimentary workings of its highly advanced lighting system!”  
“Great work,” said Glimmer, smiling at Bow and Entrapta and staring coldly at Hordak, uncomfortable at the idea of thanking him for anything.  
“Let’s split up and explore the ship.” she continued. “We aren’t just looking for Prime’s old bodies – Hordak already knows where those are and we’ll deal with them later. Look out for anything suspicious that could indicate Horde activity and report it to me. Mermista and Seahawk, you take the upper spire. Entrapta, Hordak, and Micah, search the outer ring. Netossa and Spinarella, you take the inner ring. She-Ra, take Swiftwind, and explore that giant creepy room where Horde Prime spent most of his time. Catra, Bow, Hermann and I will cover the lower parts of the ship between us.”  
As everyone went their separate ways, Micah placed a reassuring hand on Glimmer’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Glimmer. I’ll keep an eye on them,” he said softly, indicating Hordak, Entrapta, and Emily. “Thanks, Dad.” Glimmer answered, smiling a little before vanishing into a puff of sparkles. 

Catra walked deeper into the bowels of the ship, shivering for reasons she could not explain. They’d been walking for twenty minutes already, and the corridor still seemed endless. There was another distant clatter and instinctively she whirled to meet the sound, ears pricked, claws out, fur fluffed.  
“It’s alright,” said Bow, soothingly. “It’s just the ship, settling and adjusting to being full of trees. The roots are bound to have damaged things and something probably got dislodged and fell over.”  
“Great,” growled Catra, turning around again reluctantly. “Just great. Things suddenly falling over inside a gigantic, creepy, broken ship is exactly what we need right now.” But she could swear she’d heard the sound before, further away. Minutes later, she heard it again. Closer. This time she hissed and Bow had to grab her by the arm and pull her along to get her to keep moving.   
“I’m telling you, my ears can hear things you can’t!” she growled.   
“I’m not doubting your ears,” replied Bow, kindly, “just your interpretation of what you’re hearing.”

They would have begun an argument, but at that moment Glimmer and Hermann appeared in front of them with a poof.   
“What’s wrong?” asked Glimmer, noticing the wary look on Catra’s face.  
“She’s worried about....”  
“...Noises, Bow, real noises that I keep hearing, which are coming closer!” Catra spat.  
Something clattered and this time, they all heard it. The sound came again, louder, and Hermann’s eyes widened enormously. “No.” he muttered. “This cannot be. Not now!”  
The clattering had become a constant low rumble now, and the floor trembled beneath their feet.  
“What. Is. That?” whispered Bow, his voice strained as tight as his bowstring.  
“It is the Emperor’s pet. RUN!” yelped Hermann. No further explanation was necessary. They ran.

Hermann led them pell-mell down one corridor after another, until they reached a chamber full of empty cloning tanks.   
“Climb in!” whispered Hermann, urgently. “Into the tanks, one person in each. The creature has some ability to detect heat but its intellect is limited. It expects there to be heat signatures in this room coming from clone bodies, so perhaps we can fool it.”  
Catra screwed up her nose in disgust. “I’m not getting into this slimy...” but Glimmer had clapped one hand over her mouth and hissed,  
“Just. Do it. Get. in.”  
The rumbling was getting close again. Grumbling a little, Catra and the others hopped into the tanks. They were only a third full after the clones had been removed, but the amniotic fluid was still thick, slimy and unpleasantly green.   
Everyone stood as still as they could as the creature approached, hardly daring to breathe. It slowed a little as it came past. Catra thought her heart was going to beat straight out of her chest, but it kept going. She couldn’t see it clearly; she had only the vague impression of a flash of green eyes followed by an enormous, segmented body, moving at speed. 

It was several moments before any of them dared to breathe, and many more before they crept cautiously out of the tanks. Peering into the half-light of the corridor, Hermann confirmed that the creature was gone. “It is injured,” he said, indicating several uneven trails of greenish-black blood.   
Glimmer looked at the thick, steaming substance in dismay. “Hermann, what is that thing, and why didn’t you tell us it was here? Do you want us to be killed? Explain!” she demanded.  
Hermann looked a little hurt at her accusations.“I have little knowledge of this creature. You may have noticed, “he looked at Bow, “that when you found me on this ship, I was still being programmed. I am not yet even two months from decantation from my cloning-tank, and there are many things that I had yet to learn about the Horde before you liberated me.” Glimmer relaxed a little, and he continued.  
“As I mentioned before, it is the Emperor’s pet. Horde Prime acquired it centuries ago on some distant world, and kept it as the ship’s last form of self-defence against boarders. I believe it had not been deployed from its hiding place in several years. I know nothing else about it and have never seen it before. Forgive me, my brothers, for I presumed that it had been destroyed when Adora....filled the ship with trees, and did not consider that it might have survived and been activated when we entered.”  
“That’s alright, Hermann.” said Bow, patting the unhappy clone on one shoulder. “You’ve had a lot to think about in the last little while, and a gigantic mythical space-centipede isn’t exactly what anyone would expect to find on a ship. For now, let’s figure out what to do next.”  
“How are we going to take out something that big?” asked Catra.  
“With a little help.” Glimmer replied, just before disappearing into thin air and reappearing several moments later with Adora and Swiftwind.  
“FOR THE HONOUR OF GREYSKULL!” yelled Adora, charging into the passageway before anyone could stop her, much to Catra’s disgust.  
All of them winced as they thought they heard, in the distance, the sudden silence of the creature halting its progress to listen, then the abrupt clattering thunder of it turning back to rush towards them.  
“Would it kill us,” stormed Catra, “to think about something for five seconds before Adora charges off into her battle with her stupid giant sword?”  
“Hasn’t yet!” smirked Glimmer, and vanished to join She-Ra in the corridor.  
Catra snarled, and leaped after her, followed by Bow and Hermann. “Alright!” she bellowed, reaching the now-trembling corridor where her idiot friends were standing and apparently waiting for their own deaths. “Since you morons can’t formulate a plan, I will! Hermann! You know this ship best. Run ahead and lead the creature somewhere where we can trap it. Glimmer and Bow, you distract it and slow it down so it doesn’t eat Hermann. She-Ra, Swiftwind and I will try to take it down.” The floor was really shaking now, the noise thunderous as the creature bore down on them. Catra could see its six luminous eyes coming towards them, several hundred metres down the corridor.   
“Okay, Hermann, RUN!” she yelled. He promptly bolted, with the true desperation of someone who is being chased by something very big, and very hungry. Glimmer and Bow scrambled up the sides of the passageway, using the roots as footholds, and turned to meet the creature as it came, weapons at the ready. She-Ra, Swiftwind and Catra stood stock still until it was nearly upon them, then raced to the walls as Glimmer fired off a blinding pulse of magic and Bow shot it in one eye. 

The creature reared and screamed, mandibles clicking. It really was a space-centipede, one hundred metres long from end to end, and it was furious. As it loomed above them, trying to fix its damaged eyes onto a target, Swiftwind carried Catra and She-Ra high above it, and dove. She-Ra fired a searing beam of magic from her sword that sliced the creature’s back open. The cut spurted hot blood for a moment, then, horrifyingly, it began to seal itself. The creature shrieked again and hurled itself at the bothersome creature flying about its head. Swiftwind swooped away so sharply that his passengers were nearly thrown off, and it missed, slamming into the wall and taking a raft of roots with its vast bulk as it fell.   
“We’ll have to go for the head!” Catra called out to She-Ra. “Riiight, it can’t heal itself if it doesn’t have a brain!” she grinned back.  
As they spoke, the centipede had righted itself. It shook its head from side to side, trying to dislodge the arrow still protruding from one eye....and the it saw Hermann fleeing in the distance. Arrow forgotten, the centipede threw off the last of the roots and headed off in hot pursuit.   
Wordlessly, Catra nodded to She-Ra, then dropped abruptly from Swiftwind’s back onto the monstrosity below, pulling two knives from her belt as she fell. She landed feet first and slid a little before she dug in on all fours with her claws and the knives and began to crawl the remaining fifty metres to its enormous head.

“Knives?” said Bow, whom She-Ra and Swiftwind had just picked up. “I didn’t know Catra had knives!”  
“I gave them to her yesterday!” said She-Ra while they flew after the centipede, “as a kind of...yay-we’re-not-mortal-enemies present. I told her they’d come in handy!” she said, proudly.   
“YOU GAVE CATRA KNIVES?!” yelped Glimmer from a little way ahead, hurling another blast of magic at the centipede before disappearing again.  
“Yes, I gave Catra knives.” She looked down. The centipede was below them now, with Catra visible as a small figure making its way, one scrabbling lunge at a time, along its swaying back. Hermann lead them around one corner, and then another, Catra struggling to maintain balance as the creature shifted beneath her. She-Ra frowned: then made her decision. “Bow, you take Swiftwind and fly ahead. Distract this monster as much as you can, and get it to slow down. I’m going to help Catra. Stabbing this thing in the head is going to be a two-person job!” With that, she leaped off Swiftwind and landed about as neatly as one can on a fast-moving centipede, slamming her sword deep into its back for purchase.  
The monster slowed a little in its progress. It hadn’t noticed Catra’s tiny knives, but She-Ra’s sword thrust into it like a needle. It went to turn back on itself and investigate the cause of such irritation, but Bow fired yet another arrow into yet another eye and it shrilled loudly and thrashed at the walls instead. While it was distracted, Swiftwind beat his wings at a double pace to get ahead of it and stooped sharply to allow Bow to pluck Hermann up from the floor. The centipede had gained on him steadily, and although Horde clones were admirably strong, Hermann was growing exhausted.   
“Well done, Hermann.” said Bow, patting his breathless friend on the shoulder.  
“But...brother...I...failed you.” gasped Hermann, clutching at his sides. He sucked in a few deep breaths, then continued more calmly. “I tried to lead it into a location in which we could trap it..... but all the doors we passed were..... too small for it.”  
“That’s okay, Hermann!” said Bow, kindly. “You did your best, you distracted it for a few minutes, and the most important thing is that you’re alive and safe!”  
Hermann’s eyes filled with grateful tears. Horde Prime had never cared that he was alive and safe. 

The centipede, though half-blinded, was pursuing Swiftwind now. Although he could evade it quite easily, its lunging and snapping at him threatened to dislodge Catra and She-Ra. They were still creeping along its back, clinging to one another for support. With She-Ra’s aid, they were making much faster progress, but they still had another ten metres to gain before they reached its head. They rounded another corner, and then.....Hordak, and Micah were there, hanging from the ceiling like spiders in a web of Entrapta’s hair!  
“Move!” snarled Hordak, plasma cannon primed and glowing. Swiftwind was in no mood to argue with the luminous muzzle of an alien weapon, and dove out of the way.  
Taking careful aim at the ceiling above the rampaging beast, Hordak fired and bought down a tangled mass of roots that pinned the lower half of the centipede beneath them. It writhed frantically, almost working itself loose, until he fired again and another enormous swath of roots toppled onto it. Now it was trapped, but still very much alive and extremely angry.  
Catra and She-Ra had finally been thrown off, and as Hordak, Entrapta, Emily and Micah descended from the ceiling they ran towards them, panting and yelling.  
“We almost had it!” shrieked Catra. “We were going to stab its brain until you idiots came and ruined everything.”  
The centipede flailed and slammed the still-free thirty metres of its upper body into the floor near them. They leaped out of the way, and as Glimmer, Swiftwind, Hermann and Bow landed beside them, filled with questions, Entrapta stood up as high as her hair would allow her and hollered, “EVERYONE BE QUIET!” 

Even the centipede paused for a moment, and as it resumed its irritable thrashing, Entrapta pointed to it and said, very loudly and very clearly, “Centipedes don’t need their brains to live!”  
“WHAT!” gasped everyone in general, aghast.  
“Yes, some invertebrates have an extensive central nervous system that allows them to survive for many hours without their heads. In fact....” Entrapta mused, “We could even cut it entirely in half and it would still be able to move and fight back.”  
The ensuing silence would have lasted some time, but the centipede chose that moment to hurl itself against the wall again.  
“Soooo...if we can’t cut its head off, what do we do with this thing?” grimaced Catra, edging a little further back from the creature that she was now certain had crawled directly out of the pits of hell.  
“Ideally, we’d blow it up!” beamed Entrapta, continuing a little more somberly, “However, given the tight confines of the ship and the fact that we don’t want to damage it while we’re on it....we should probably think of something else.”  
“There is a weapons room down the hall. It is the....third door you will see on your left,” said Hordak.  
Entrapta’s face lit up. “She-Ra, guard the monster! Everyone else, come with me!” she yelled, already skipping down the passage singing “Alien weapons, alien weapons!”  
“Sure. Fine,” grumbled She-Ra. “I’ll just babysit this gigantic thing that’s been trying to kill us. The centipede looked down at her, hissed, and wriggled another segment of its body free. 

Minutes later, the group returned with a strange, short-muzzled cannon marching on four sturdy legs beside Emily. Its gaping maw was lit with malevolent purple light, and huge cooling flanges rippled the surface of its barrel.   
“It’s a laser cannon!” sang Entrapta, rapturously, in response to Adora’s puzzled expression. Glimmer appeared beside her with Seahawk, Mermista, Netossa, and Spinnerella.   
“Okay everyone, let’s get started! We need to pull this abomination to the ground before we shoot it. Unless we get a clear shot, there’s no guarantee that we can kill it without damaging the ship. Everyone, get to work cutting down the longest, most flexible roots you can find.” Glimmer commanded. “And hurry!” she added, glancing fearfully at the still-writhing centipede. Ten tonnes of debris had not dampened its resolve to murder them all, in the slightest.  
Minutes later, as Entrapta and Hordak primed the cannon, Mermista, Seahawk, Spinnerella, Bow, Catra and Hermann stood at the ready, vines in hand. Even Hordak shuffled over, a little hesitantly, to help as he might. Netossa waited bravely at the head of the beast, preparing to cast her biggest net yet, while beside her, Micah and Glimmer discussed the best magical holding spell to cast. Swiftwind took She-Ra up above the centipede’s fearsome head, and she hurled the vines from one side to the other.   
“Take your positions!” she yelled. As everyone scrambled to their places, the creature thrashed from side to side in a vain attempt to crush someone. Despite its best efforts, the team assembled on each side of it, ready to pull.  
“Listen up, everyone!” called Entrapta. “This weapon throws off a lot of latent heat, so when I say run, you run as far away to the sides and forward as you can. Get out of the way. I mean it! Hopefully, the centipede will stay down long enough for us to hit its brain dead-on, and disintegrate most of its central nervous system.”  
Fearfully, they all nodded. She-Ra transformed her sword into a glowing whip, her expression grim.  
“Everyone ready? GO!”

She-Ra leaped off Swiftwind, driving down as hard as she could with all her magical strength. As she fell, she flicked the whip so it coiled around the centipede's head. She slammed into it like a thunderbolt and sent it crashing to the ground, momentarily stunned. With a snap, the lines were pulled taut, She-Ra jumped clear and took up her position with Swiftwind at her side. Glimmer, Netossa and Micah hurled their respective magic into holding the creature down...and it stayed down, but only just.  
Over the growing whine of the laser cannon, Entrapta screamed, “RUN!” and with Glimmer transporting everyone on her side and She-Ra and Swiftwind hurling themselves forwards with the others, they literally flew.  
The centipede shifted, went to rise...but too late. The laser cannon’s beam ripped forward with a terrible shriek, utterly disintegrating the centipede’s head and the first twenty metres of its body. The remaining eighty metres were blackened, but it still thrashed violently beneath the collapsed roots and so the cannon fired again. Vines, roots, debris, and centipede all went up in smoke, leaving only a charred, twitching mess behind. 

Before its scorched remains, the Rebel squad collectively collapsed in exhaustion, save for Entrapta, who was hugging Hordak and babbling hysterically into her voice-recorder.   
Presently Glimmer sat up. A thought had just occurred to her. “Hordak,” she growled, with a rising note of anger, “why didn’t you tell us there was a gigantic monster on this ship? Were you leading us into a trap?” she accused.  
“Gah!” Hordak snarled back at her. Restrained by Entrapta’s hair, he composed himself and answered, tersely, “I believed that Horde Prime destroyed this creature years ago. Just before he cast me out, he stated that all forms of chaos must be brought to order, and entertained the notion of killing the beast that guarded his ship in favour of something....more in his style. He must have thought better of it.” Hordak glanced back at the gruesome scene behind him. “Regardless, the centipede has not been deployed for a long time, as invaders onboard Prime’s ship are a rare occurrence.”  
“Then why did he have it in the first place?” Bow questioned.  
“After the events on Krytis, Horde Prime sought a defense system that was a little more organic in nature. The wildness of the magic he had found scared him, so he went in pursuit of something that could defend against even the most powerful of magical beings.” Hordak answered, nodding towards Adora. “This creature was known as the Enderbeast on its homeworld of Temrist, but Prime called it Onslaught. Its original function was to guard Temrist, but Prime implanted one of his chips into its brain as it slumbered, seized control of its mind, and used it to destroy its own planet. Afterward, he took Onslaught onto his ship to use as the last line of defense against anyone who dared to board it with malicious intent. He seldom made use of Onslaught, but when he did, its effects were....devastating.”  
Adora looked confused. “If this thing was so hard for even She-Ra to kill, why didn’t Prime use it against us on Etheria?”  
Hordak and Hermann exchanged glances. “My brothers,” began Hermann, tentatively, “Horde Prime believed that he was superior to all beings and his methods were the only methods.”  
Hordak nodded. “Glimmer, Catra, you saw....my unfortunate downfall. You witnessed my brother's rejection of my conquest of Etheria.” He muttered this last part through gritted teeth but carried on.   
“Prime had no love for the mess and chaos of weapons such as Onslaught and kept it as his very last resort. In the end, he pursued with razor-edged precision the peace and order that comes only after ultimate, all-consuming destruction.”  
The smallest hint of a smile played at his lips as he pondered something, then turned to Adora.  
“You are right, Adora. Unleashing Onslaught onto Etheria would have thrown the forces of the Rebellion into chaos. As you sought to destroy it, Prime could easily have sucked the planet dry of every last drop of energy from the Heart. After all, he needed only to buy himself time before the weapon that might have destroyed the galaxy was ready to fire. But Prime was arrogant. He underestimated the power of living beings like Onslaught.” Hordak paused, looking at the people around him. “He underestimated us all, and that was his downfall.”  
“Well,” said Glimmer, scowling and brushing past him, “I’m still not giving myself the chance to underestimate YOU again, because that will be OUR downfall. I still don’t trust you!”

Even with the combined magical efforts of Glimmer, Micah, and She-Ra, searching the rest of the ship took the best part of the day. Horde Prime had indeed deployed every last one of his clones onto Etheria, and thankfully there were none left on the ship, not even in the cloning tanks. Sometime around midday, Glimmer found the room where Horde Prime’s bodies were kept. She had been hoping that the power outage would have killed them, but she was disappointed to find that there was a backup generator in the room, which the tree roots had not damaged. It would be so easy, she mused, to just pull a few wires out here and there or destroy a circuit. Floating suspended in a greenish fluid, Prime’s bodies looked somehow simultaneously formidable and vulnerable. No, Glimmer thought to herself regretfully, they needed the information that these bodies contained. There was so much about Etheria that she did not understand, and perhaps one of these clones would hold the key. Somehow, Horde Prime had known who She-Ra was and figured out how to tap into Etheria’s power without her, and Glimmer wanted to know why. Sighing, she activated her communications earpiece and summoned Entrapta and Hordak.   
They arrived five minutes later, accompanied by Micah and Emily.  
“How did you get here so fast?” Glimmer asked, exasperated and surprised.  
“We took the elevator. I had presumed that you knew of such things,” said Hordak, looking genuinely confused for once.  
“We don’t HAVE elevators at Brightmoon!” snapped Glimmer. “Why would magical beings who can teleport, use, or know about elevators?” She smoothed down her hair and fidgeted a little before continuing more calmly. “I presume that you already know why I brought you here. These clones contain information vital to the safety of Etheria. I know you’re both geniuses, so get to work.”   
Entrapta sprang forward eagerly and disappeared down the row of tanks with Emily beeping and skittering behind her. Hordak hesitated for a moment, then followed.  
“What is wrong with him?” Glimmer grumped to Micah. “Can’t he stand the sight of his own brother? Is he afraid of facing the horrible things they’ve done?”  
Some ten metres away, Hordak’s ears twitched and he spun on his heel to glare back at her. “I am NOT afraid!” he snarled, before turning away again. However, just for one brief second, Glimmer looked into his eyes and saw the lie. He looked scared, and sad, and so, so tired.   
“Glimmer, I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Micah chided, “but you should be kinder to him. He did make a conscious choice to join our side yesterday and rebel against Prime. He saved Entrapta. Today, he helped save us all from that giant centipede thing. Give him time. He may prove to be a useful ally.” Glimmer scowled and thought of her mother, but said nothing. 

Ahead of them, Hordak walked with his head hung and his shoulders slumped. Shame was not a new concept to him, and he wondered why he was doing this, why he had ever bothered with anything at all.   
Then Entrapta called to him from the end of the row, and he smiled a little.   
“Hordak, there you are!” she said, fondly. “I need your help!” She noticed the look on his face and frowned. “Are you alright?”  
“Yes, I am perfectly well. What is the task that you require assistance with?” he answered.   
Entrapta was not good at reading facial expressions, but she knew enough to be unconvinced by this answer. She glanced back at Glimmer and Micah in the distance and thought of her own struggles with regaining the trust of the princesses after she had returned from the Horde. Even now, she knew deep down that some of them did not respect her. Princesses were not always as kind and good as they thought themselves to be.   
She looked up again at Hordak’s face and took his hand in hers. “Hordak, I know this is hard for you. I’m not very good at the whole friendship thing, but I want you to know that I will always be your friend, and I am very proud of what you did yesterday. I knew you could do it, and I know you’ll do great today!”  
Hordak smiled. “For once, you are incorrect, Entrapta. Although neither of us is well-versed in emotional and social protocols, you are an excellent friend. Let us get to work. We will earn the trust of Glimmer, yet.”

Half an hour later they returned to an impatient Glimmer with the news that they had found a way to access and download information from Horde Prime’s bodies without the intercession of another clone.  
“With Hordak’s help, I can synthesise a neural network, similar enough to the mind of a clone, which can be stored on an electronic device! I’ll need to create a new kind of compad powered by First Ones tech for every clone, though!” Entrapta informed them, almost vibrating with anticipation. “There’s so much data in each one! We’re sure to find more information about Etheria...”  
At that moment She-Ra flew in on Swiftwind. She cast her burning gaze over the tanks of Prime-clones and turned to Hordak and Entrapta. “I’ve found Horde Prime’s body,” she said. “Come with me.”   
“WAIT!” cried Glimmer, but already, they had vanished into the eerie half-light of the twisted corridor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to the profound horror I experienced after learning that centipedes can be chopped in half and carry on living and biting things. Yes, I found a research paper on it and read it at 1 am. Yes, I'm still recovering from that knowledge and feel the need to inflict it upon you all.


	3. A Tyrant's Funeral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short, angsty bit about Horde Prime being dead, with some seriously warped humour thrown in.

Hordak shuddered as he stepped back into his brother’s inner sanctum. Though it was now empty of the usual frenzied Prime-worshippers, he could not help but constantly check over his shoulder for green eyes in the shadows. She-Ra and Swiftwind led them into the centre of the room and they gazed for a moment at the smashed communications screen and the scorch marks from the pulse cannon. She-Ra looked sadly at Hordak, then spoke.  
“I found his body a hundred metres below us. It is broken beyond repair. He’s really gone, Hordak.”  
“Thank you, She-Ra. I.....I need to see him for myself. I know that this is an irrational request but...” he trailed off helplessly.  
Wordlessly, Adora nodded and gestured to Swiftwind. The three of them climbed aboard and Swiftwind, complaining a little about the weight, spread his wings and spiraled down into the darkness at the heart of the ship. 

They found Horde Prime’s body just as Adora had said. Illuminated in She-Ra’s light, he lay shattered and still, surrounded by a pool of thick blackened blood. Hordak knelt beside him and was silent for a long time.  
“I did this,” he said, finally. “I turned against my brother at last and rebelled against the cause I have pursued my whole life. I never have to hear his voice in my mind again.” A single tear ran down his pale face and Entrapta embraced him, cupping his face with her hair.  
“Hordak, it’s okay. You’re free now,” she said, gently.  
“Free? Free to do what? What am I to do with my life now?” he answered. “I...scarcely know who I am or what I stand for. All my life I have sought the will and the approval of Prime. How can I live in a world where everything I did and believed is reprehensible? All that I thought I knew is wrong!” He was weeping now, hot, angry tears streaming from his white eyes and mingling with Prime’s blood on the floor.   
Swiftwind stepped forward and placed one wing around Hordak and Entrapta’s shoulders. She-Ra, who had been staring thoughtfully at the floor for a while, raised her head and spoke again.   
“Hordak, you’re right about not being able to change the past, but you can be a better person in the future. I felt something similar when I left the Horde and discovered that what I believed about Etheria was completely false. The guilt crushed me until I realised what you need to know now: You get to decide who you are and what you stand for from now on, and this time you can choose love and compassion.” Hordak wiped his face, and sneezed.  
“Besides!” She-Ra continued, “You already made some good decisions yesterday and you have Entrapta now. She loves you! She’s your friend and you stood up for her! That’s gotta count for something, right?”  
Entrapta squeezed Hordak’s hand and he managed to smile a little at her. “Adora,” he said, hoarsely, “I remember that day I found you on those plains, alone and so far from your own universe. I do not know why we were both sucked into this world and I do not understand why you became the hero and I became the monster. I had a choice then, too, but I still believed all these years that Prime was right and all other beings had to fall before his dominion. Now, I don’t know what to believe about him.” He bowed his head and clenched his teeth. “My own brother wiped my memory and cast me aside as an abomination. Again.”  
She-Ra smiled compassionately. “It will take time to unlearn all of the terrible things Prime told you, but you can help me repair Etheria now! You’ve been my mortal enemy for years, but I have to say I really admire that you broke through Prime’s mind control to save Entrapta, all on your own. Not even Catra, the stubbornest person I know, could do that on her own, and she was chipped, not part of a hive mind and a clone army! We’ll fix this mess together, all of us, princesses or not! That’s what friendship is about....”  
“Doing things together!” finished Entrapta. “I believe in you, Hordak. We can make Etheria a better place again, and you can become a better person. You can learn to be a good friend, with me!”

Hordak nodded, and sighed. “Thank you both. There is one more thing I must do, then. I cannot leave my brother’s body like this.” He scooped up the limp, bloody corpse of Prime, and carried him to the nearest airlock. Entrapta opened it for him, and Hordak stepped forward and dropped the body into Etheria’s atmosphere. He fired his plasma cannon after it as it dropped like a stone, and She-Ra sent a blinding white bolt of energy with it. Within seconds, Prime was reduced to ashes, burned up by that which he had sought to destroy.  
All of them retreated back inside, gasping for air after the airlock door had closed. When they had recovered, She-Ra stood and blasted away the blood on the floor. Entrapta stood in unusual silence, then said contemplatively, “Horde Prime’s last wish was to burn with us on Etheria. I think that’s the closest he was ever gonna get.”  
Swiftwind sighed heavily as they boarded him again, and together, they flew upwards into the light.

They regrouped with the others at the docking point. Hordak’s clothes were streaked with blood and his face with tears. Nobody dared to speak to him.   
Tearing her eyes away from the gruesome sight, Glimmer addressed the group and they reported their findings to her. Netossa and Spinerella had discovered a few stray Horde bots in the inner rings and had left them in many pieces. Entrapta had found a maintenance drone and requested that Micah and Hordak take it down carefully so she could repurpose it to service Darla.   
“We had to do it or she wouldn’t have stopped following it!” Micah protested in response to his daughter’s questioning stare.   
Hermann had discovered an acute fear of the dark. Catra and Glimmer were not speaking to one another, and Seahawk had had his mouth taped shut, so presumably, some conflict had arisen in several areas. Besides Prime’s body and the giant centipede, thankfully little else of interest to anyone except Entrpta had been discovered. The growls from various stomachs were becoming increasingly audible.  
“Let’s head home. I’m starving and we’ve seen everything we need to.” Adora said to Glimmer, yawning.  
“Did you check that Prime was definitely dead?” Glimmer questioned.  
“Oh yeah, Hordak threw his body out of an airlock and we made sure it burned up in the atmosphere.....like one of those meee-meteor thingies Entrapta was showing us last night.” Adora was leaning against the wall, nonchalantly picking at her nails.  
“You....you did what? He burned up?” Glimmer’s eyes went very wide.  
“Like a meteor!” interjected Entrapta. “It was very dramatic. Burning up was his last wish!”  
“Yes,” Hordak replied gravely, trying to suppress a mischievous glint in his eye. “I wanted to honour his wishes to....go out with a bang. He was always so dramatic.”  
Entrapta giggled, and Adora sputtered, then burst out laughing so hard that she involuntarily snorted. “Did.....did you just make a joke about your dead brother?” she asked, wiping tears from her eyes.  
“Yes, I believe I did,” Hordak replied. “Let us leave this miserable place at once. Despite my humour, this ship is filled with many bad memories.”  
“Okaaay then.” said Glimmer, and started walking back to Mara’s ship, staring unblinkingly ahead of her. “Oh! Entrapta,” she said, halting suddenly. “You have the rest of the summer to collect all the data you want from this ship, and then we’re destroying it and the horrible Prime clones inside it.”  
“CAN WE BLOW IT UP?” yelled Entrapta and Catra, simultaneously.  
“Yes, you can both blow it up,” answered Glimmer, tiredly.   
“Can we pleeeeeease just go home?” Mermista asked, her head slumped forward onto her chest. Together they returned to Darla and flew back to the Rebel camp in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, okay, I can explain. The prompt for Horde Prime's corpse being hurled out of an airlock to burn up in the atmosphere came from one stupid night when I staggered into my brother's room at midnight (in this house we are night owls), laughing my ass off about possible ways to dispose of his body. We agreed that he deserved it. I physically could not stop myself from writing this.


	4. The Settlement of the Clones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer faces up to her fears with the help of her friends. They contemplate the challenges ahead of them.

Adora woke the following morning at dawn to find Glimmer awake and pacing.  
Clearly, something was gravely wrong and Adora leaped to her feet and jogged quietly over to her friend. “So, Glimmer, what predicament has you finally convinced that this hour of the morning is a good time to be awake?” she teased, but the frown on Glimmer’s face would not lift.

  
“We have two thousand clones to accommodate, and we still have that.....thing!” she gestured aggressively to Hordak “in our camp!” She scowled at Adora’s questioning look and continued. “Yes, he may have helped us in the last few days but after decades of war, I do not trust him! And no, I don’t care that he had his mind wiped and his body regenerated....he’s still the same Hordak underneath, and those clones are all still clones of Horde Prime! Hordak might take charge and try to overthrow Etheria again. The only other person he seems to care about is Entrapta, so I, for one want to take him as a prisoner before he does it to us!” she finished, firmly.

  
Adora smiled gently and nodded towards the sleeping Hordak. He rocked his head from one side to the other and gasped, as though trying to escape something in his dreams. Without even opening her eyes, Entrapta wrapped more of her hair around him and pulled him closer to her. Emily rolled herself around to sit beside them both, furtive and protective. Hordak relaxed and stilled again.  
“I don’t think Hordak is going anywhere without Entrapta, and as long as we’re friends of Entrapta, I think we’ll be okay,” Adora said to Glimmer.

  
“Yeah, I don’t trust him either,” interjected Catra, from behind them. Adora and Glimmer both yelped and jumped, and Catra chuckled. “Don’t you worry, I’ve taken Hordak down before and I can do it again. He’s like She-Ra: big and powerful, but slow and predictable. Easy to rile up, too! You should have seen him when he found out I sent Entrapta to Beast Island. I knew they were close, but I didn’t know he’d almost destroy the fright Zone over his precious princess!”

  
“Great.” scowled Glimmer. “Thanks for the friendly reminder that we have multiple, emotionally unstable ex-villains in our camp....but at least if something goes wrong, they’ll probably be so busy trying to kill each other that they’ll have no time to bother anyone else.” Catra hissed disapprovingly, but Glimmer had already stalked off.

  
“Don’t worry, she’s always moody in the morning. I’ve never seen her awake this early!” Adora reassured Catra, smoothing down her ruffled fur.  
Catra sighed, and the two of them walked off after Glimmer, hand in hand as the sun rose.

They caught up to her a few minutes later as she reached the top of the hill overlooking the clone camp. The sun crested it with them, illuminating the two thousand sleeping clones arrayed before them. Castaspella, Glimmer, and Micah had created a magical barrier around the camp that gently restrained the clones, but would allow others to pass through, and it shimmered faintly in the dawn light. Somewhere near the front edge of the camp, one clone sat up and held out his hand as though to hold the rising sun. The light spilled out between his fingers like liquid gold, glittering with magic, and he gasped in delight.

  
Even the grumpy Glimmer couldn’t help but smile at his simple joy. The sun warmed her back, and as it climbed higher the other clones began to stir. Glimmer heard the swish of grass behind her and turned just in time to see Bow’s smiling face as he came to hug her. “Good morning Glimmer! I’m surprised to see you up this early. Did you sleep alright?”  
Glimmer rested her forehead against Bow’s chest for a moment before answering. “Oh, I slept alright....I’m just a little preoccupied, that’s all!”  
Bow quirked an eyebrow at this but asked nothing more.

Below them, Scorpia waved and started up the hill to meet them. She reached the top after a few moments, puffing a little, and greeted them brightly. “Good morning everyone! I hope your mission to search Prime’s ship was successful?”

“If by successful you mean that we were nearly murdered by a giant centipede and discovered that there are hundreds of older versions of Horde Prime still alive on board, then yes, I guess we were successful!” Glimmer answered, curtly.  
“Don’t worry!” Catra laughed in response to Scorpia’s concerned expression. “We killed the centipede and Prime’s former selves don’t really have anything inhabiting their minds anymore after Adora did her She-Ra exorcism thing.”  
“I didn’t exorcise Horde Prime!” Adora protested indignantly. “I...disintegrated his spirit and dispersed it into the cosmos. I think.”  
“Whatever, you exorcised him. He’s gone now. Dead. No threat to anyone. Sparkles here is just a little grumpy and paranoid!” Catra patted the top of Glimmer’s head, patronisingly. She glowered and swiped Catra’s hand away sharply. “I am NOT paranoid!” she snapped. “I am simply taking a proactive approach to making sure that we never have to see that horrible four-eyed face ever again!”  
“You got me there, Sparkles.” Catra conceded. “I did always hate those extra eyes.”

“Scorpia” Bow said with deliberate, cheerful firmness as he sought to redirect the conversation, “How are you doing with all these clones?”  
“Oh, they’re great actually!” replied Scorpia, happily. “Once we got through the whole crying phase and they understood what was going on, they seemed...just so happy to be here. Just look at them!” She gestured broadly with one enormous pincer at the clones, now all awake and basking contentedly in the sun, laughing and talking amongst themselves.  
“Castaspella said they’re a little like...children, you know. Very traumatized children.” Scorpia continued. “They don’t seem to know how to make decisions for themselves yet, but if you give them something to do that makes them feel included and useful, they’re pretty easygoing! Really intelligent too, and such fast learners. Perfuma loves them!” she enthused, then paused and frowned sadly. “After Prime’s treatment of them, they’re so desperate for validation and love. Perfuma is so good at the whole positivity and encouragement thing, and they seem to respond really well to that! We have to keep them busy or they get upset. I guess having something to do keeps their minds off, you know, Horde Prime.” She brightened, struck by some sudden idea. “Oh! Come with me, I’ll show ya what we did with them yesterday.”

  
Scorpia led them to a nearby large clearing which was now covered in a thick sheet of ice, smooth and shining in the morning sun. Frosta waved and ran over to them. “Hey everyone! The clones thought my ice powers were really cool,” she clenched her fists proudly “so Castaspella and I decided to teach them to ice-skate! I made the rink and Castaspella made enchanted skates. They LOVED it!” She pointed excitedly at the ice, her face luminous with joy.  
“Yeah, they took a few hundred at a time and then swapped over,” Scorpia explained.  
“Sounds exhausting,” commented Catra.  
“No, that’s the amazing thing!” Scorpia beamed. “These things are just....they’re just like little sponges for information. Once you teach them something, they just seem to get it so fast. It must be something in their...programming. Or, what’s it called...Deeeyanay?”  
“Yeah!” affirmed Frosta. “And they work together too. Once I had shown a few of them how to skate and they understood, they showed it to the other clones pretty quickly. They started out skating in lines, holding each other up, and then breaking up into smaller groups. It was...incredible.”  
“Well that’s awesome and encouraging, and also kind of freaky!” commented Bow.

  
Scorpia took them to another clearing, where Perfuma was making flower crowns with a few clones. “They loved her “flower powers”, and her understanding of nature!” Scorpia said, proudly. “So we taught quite a few of them things about plants and nature and self-expression.  
Perfuma smiled and rose to greet them. “Oh, these clones are so wonderful without Horde Prime invading their thoughts! It’s so easy to direct their energies toward positivity.” she gushed. “They do have such low self-esteem, though.” she finished sadly.  
“Yeah, they do get upset when they get something wrong,” said Scorpia. “They don’t seem to understand yet that they can just try again, and nobody is going to punish them for messing up.”  
She put one arm around Perfuma’s shoulder. “We spent a lot of time trying to console some of them and get them to see that they have some worth outside of what they do. Failure isn’t always a bad thing, and it’s really good to learn from mistakes. I guess nobody has ever taught them that before.”

  
“There’s a lot of people who don’t understand that,” said Bow. “We can often be so harsh on ourselves when we make a mistake, and get so fixated on it that we forget about the opportunity to start again.”  
“Some of us can even start to see ourselves as the mistake,” Catra said, pulling nervously at one ear and staring at the ground. Adora and Glimmer hugged her, and she protested a little less than usual.  
“We all have some learning to do,” said Adora, gently.

***

“Well done to all of you.” Glimmer congratulated Castaspella, Frosta, Scorpia, and Perfuma. “You’ve done a great job taking care of the clones! But now, we have to decide what to do with them in the longer term. They can’t stay here.”  
“Why not?” Bow asked, perplexed.  
“They seem so happy here!” said Scorpia.

  
Glimmer pressed the bridge of her nose with one hand for a moment before answering. “They need permanent accommodations! These clearings are too small for them to build a town to live in, we can’t chop down trees in the Whispering Woods, and I don’t want all these clones out here together! They might look harmless now, but once they realise they can make their own decisions we’ll have two thousand strong, smart, living war machines on our hands.....and that reminds me of our other problem! We probably have thousands MORE all over Etheria and we don’t know where they are or what they’re going to do once they get over the Post-Prime Blues.”

  
Perfuma gasped. “How dare you speak like that about these poor, abused people!”  
“You saw what Hordak did!” Glimmer retorted. “He was just one injured clone, stranded suddenly on an unfamiliar planet, and he rallied an army that almost destroyed Etheria. Imagine what two thousand of them could do, or even ten!”  
Perfuma stepped forward and spoke softly. “Glimmer, I understand that you’ve faced a lot of negativity in your life, but there’s no need to project it onto the clones. We have a chance to show them real kindness! Who knows how the course of history might have changed if someone had shown Hordak the right path when he first landed on Etheria.”  
“Perfuma, now is not the time for your boundless, naive optimism!” Glimmer snarked.

  
“Hey! protested Scorpia, but Glimmer ignored her.  
“In case you haven’t noticed, we have just ended a decades-long war and I am not taking any chances!” Glimmer snarled. “We need to consider every option! We’re not in Despondos anymore! What if someone else invades us? What if Horde Prime’s other clones come to collect their brothers? What if Hordak decides he doesn’t like us again, and Entrapta decides, once again, that she doesn’t care?”

  
Adora stopped Glimmer there with a firm hand on her shoulder. “Glimmer, believe me, I get it.” she sighed. “Victory has been hard-won, and you want to preserve that! You want to protect the people you love from anything bad ever happening to them again.” Glimmer’s shoulders slumped and a single, silvered tear slid down her cheek.  
“Let me give you some advice, Glimmer, speaking as someone who once....threatened you,” Catra said. “You’re at your weakest when you’re freaking out. You have to acknowledge that you can’t predict every outcome and prevent every negative possibility. Use your time and resources wisely. Guard against what you can, and when the unpredictable comes.....”  
“We will face it together.” finished Bow.

Glimmer sniffled a little, then turned to Perfuma. “I’m sorry for what I said. That wasn’t fair. You understand that the greatest form of rebellion against people like Horde Prime is kindness.”  
Perfuma smiled and squeezed Glimmer’s hand. “I forgive you. You spoke from a place of pain and anger, but your heart was in the right place. Yes, the best way to protect ourselves from future problems is to build strong relationships between us. We will teach these clones about kindness, and love, and freedom, and respect, and if the day ever comes when we have to face another enemy, they will stand beside us as our friends.”

  
Glimmer smiled grudgingly, then slumped again. “Does this mean I have to forgive Hordak?” she snapped, disgusted.  
“Hmmm, that’s a tricky one. I’ve been trying to work that out myself,” said Bow, contemplatively. “How do you feel about him at the moment?”  
“Angry. Distrustful. Hurt. Maybe a little bit scared.”  
“That’s fair enough! I’ve got similar feelings. He did do a lot of terrible things and he’s gotta earn our trust. How do you think he’s feeling, right now?”  
“Well, right now, thankfully he’s asleep...but I guess....does he even feel anything at all?”  
“You saw him yesterday. I think you know that’s not true. As much as I hate to admit it, I watched him cry and agonise over the death of his brother. He looked....confused.” Adora confessed.  
“Well, I suppose he’s SOME kind of person with maybe a few emotions? Maybe one day he’ll even develop a heartbeat and some moral standards.” Glimmer grouched. “Ugh, look, guys, I know I’m supposed to be a good princess who forgives everyone and gives them a second chance, but Hordak? Seriously? Why should I forgive him? That will just give him the chance to hurt us again! I can’t just let go of everything he’s done and pretend it’s fine! He sent my father to Beast Island” she sobbed, “and my mother.....she died saving us from that awful portal that Hordak helped open!"

  
Catra touched Glimmer’s shoulder lightly and spoke softly, voice heavy with regret. “Glimmer, you already know that’s not what forgiveness is about. I hurt you all, terribly, and yet for some reason, you forgave me. Maybe because of Adora. I opened that portal, in the end. I wanted to destroy Etheria, just to get back at Adora because I blamed her for my own pain and insecurity. You all know that.” Her voice was hoarse and she wrapped one arm around herself, self-consciously. “You all remember exactly what I did. None of us are pretending that what happened was okay, or that it didn’t hurt. I know that Netossa has made a plan to take me down if I turn against you, and I understand exactly why. I have to earn your trust.” She straightened again and flinched as Adora wiped the tears from her face. “Forgiveness is not turning a blind eye to the past or being naive. It’s choosing to move forward without anger in your heart so that it doesn’t poison you. I’m still learning that myself. I can’t bring myself to forgive Shadow Weaver after she manipulated me for years. I had to fight so hard to even feel the right to be angry with her and understand how she abused me. Feeling angry with her all the time is so exhausting. It feels like this lump of hot tar in my chest and I know that as long as I’m still angry with her, she still has power over me and she’s still hurting me. I’m not ready to forgive her yet, but I’ll get there eventually.”

Catra found herself suddenly engulfed in the arms of a sobbing Glimmer.  
“Catra! I don’t know how I’m going to let go of how mad I feel about everything that’s happened, but I have to try. Being so angry all the time hurts so much. I’m so tired.” Glimmer wept. “I’m not ready to forgive yet either, but I guess that one day I’ll have to face that challenge.”  
“That’s okay, Glimmer!” Bow said, soothingly. “We’re all here for you, on a very similar journey, and we’re so proud of you. You too, Catra!” he added. “Besides, if it makes any of you feel better, when I left camp this morning, Double Trouble and Entrapta were dragging Hordak off to get him a new outfit or something. I don’t think he’s in any position to threaten us right now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a hard one to write. It really made me think about the time it takes to process grief and anger. My thinking on this is that everyone, clones included, would spend the first few days feeling a bit shell-shocked and blanked out as they come to terms with the fact that the war's really over, and with time they'll face up to the details. Glimmer is a good character to use for his since she shows her emotions quite clearly, and I'm really enjoying writing her relationship with Catra as they build a tentative friendship. The clones are going to have to learn how to even feel and recognise emotion before they can begin to process what's happened to them. For now, they're pretty contented with sitting in the sun and observing their new home. I enjoy thinking about what it would be like to feel the sun on your skin and the grass beneath your feet for the first time.


	5. It's Called Fashion, You Insolent Fool, Look It Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hordak gets a new look courtesy of Double Trouble and Entrapta.

Hordak had indeed awoken to see his own face staring back at him, blue hair, red eyes, and all. He sat up with a growl when his doppelganger blinked slitted eyes side to side. “Double Trouble.” he sighed, unenthusiastically.  
The figure stepped back and changed into something sleek and reptilian, and bowed elegantly. “At your service. I see that Big Brother has given you a makeover in his own image?” they said, smiling viciously.  
Hordak stood, and dusted off his bedraggled robes as best he could, uncomfortably aware of Double Trouble’s disapproving gaze. “What do you want?” he groaned.“Your....attire caught my eye as I was passing through and I simply had to do something about it, simply had to understand how you came to be in such a sad state! Is that blood?” they quizzed, looming closer with their tail curling inquisitively behind them.  
“It is the blood of Horde Prime,” said Hordak with as much dignity and indifference as he could muster.  
“Oh, how dramatic!” they gasped. “The poetry! The irony! Oh, an empire ended and Horde Prime crushed, by his own brother. I am impressed.” They caressed the underside of Hordak’s chin with one clawed hand, and Hordak bared his teeth in irritation.

  
“So tell me,” Double Trouble continued, undeterred, “How did you do it?”

“He commanded me to kill Entrapta, and I objected strongly to the idea. I broke through the mind control, turned my plasma cannon on him instead, and afterward, I hurled him off the bridge of his own ship. But it was She-Ra who truly destroyed him, and not I.” Hordak admitted, a little reluctantly. “He took possession of my mind again, and She-Ra drove him out, obliterating him once and for all. I was reunited with Entrapta, and later, when we retrieved my brother’s broken body, I dropped him out of the airlock to burn up in Etheria’s atmosphere. Carrying his corpse is the cause of my bloodstained appearance.”

  
“So it’s a tale of true love then? The once-diabolical villain changes his heart to save his beloved....and oh, look! Here comes the leading lady herself.” Double Trouble gushed, gesturing theatrically at the approaching Entrapta.

“Double Trouble!” yelled Entrapta. “Great! You are precisely the person I need right now.  
“I aim to please, darling.” Double Trouble grinned. “By the way, that castle of yours with the traps and winding corridors is...delightful. So much suspense around every corner!”  
“Oh, I’m glad you like it!” replied Entrapta, and promptly seized Hordak by the shoulders. “I was just thinking this morning,” she said, ignoring his disgruntled look, “that Hordak could really use a new suit! Not that he really needs one now, not since his body got restored or replaced......but he does seem uncomfortable without it!”“I feel....physically well, but exposed. And I detest these robes. White is an impractical colour.” Hordak affirmed, curling his lip in disgust at the clothing his brother had forced him to wear.  
“Yeah, you told me it reminds of Horde Prime and that makes you feel uneasy, so it has to go! You need clothing you feel at home in, and you liked your suit. Prime probably destroyed the one I made for him in the Fright Zone, and I could really use some advice on how to design a new one that looks less.....evil. I’ve heard that you’re an expert on appearances, Double Trouble!” Entrapa said brightly.

They looked delighted. “Yes, darling, I had anticipated that a change in his role would be inevitable, and with a change in role there must come...” they morphed briefly into Hordak’s form, then back into themselves again, “a new costume! You’ve come to the right person. There’s nobody more experienced than I am when it comes to making an impression with appearances.” they said smugly, then turned suddenly as the glint of the crystal Entrapta had given Hordak caught their eye. “Looks like we already have the statement piece for the outfit. How wonderful! I do love a good shiny accessory.”  
Entrapta laughed. “Oh, this is so much more than an accessory, believe me!”  
She and Double Trouble smiled conspiratorially at one another, and Hordak sighed heavily. His fate was sealed.

Entrapta wasted no time getting to work, and she and Emily had soon located the wreckage of a Horde bot in the forest nearby. There were thousands of them scattered throughout the Whispering Woods, their twisted metallic frames protruding awkwardly from the undergrowth as Etheria’s magical forest regrew and buried them. Entrapta hummed cheerfully as she and Emily dragged the dead bot back to camp. While they stripped it down for parts, Double Trouble took measurements of the resigned, grumpy Hordak and began sketching outfits on a notepad they pulled seemingly out of thin air.  
“What are your feelings on pants?” they asked, glancing at Hordak out of the corner of one cunning green eye.  
“I despise them,” growled Hordak.  
“Wonderful. I do love a man who rebels against the norm! A robe it is.” Double Trouble replied, sketching rapidly. They closed the notebook a few minutes later, apparently satisfied, then vanished into the trees.

  
They reappeared half an hour later with several bolts of a strange, shimmering fabric that they had apparently obtained from Madame Razz. “Oh, I visit her all the time for coffee and gossip!” they explained, laying the fabric out on a table that Hordak didn’t recall being there before. “She has all the best information on Etheria, past, present, and future, plus an astounding collection of unusual items she obtained from some ancient space ship or something.” Double Trouble continued, gesturing vaguely, scissors in one hand, pins in another. “Plus, you know, even someone as fabulously, fashionably despicable as I am knows that you have to check on old ladies living in the woods every now and then.” they finished, dramatically, as they placed an entire foot-operated sewing machine beside the table.  
If Hordak had known how to roll his eyes, he would have, but at that point in his life his understanding of facial expressions was too limited and so he simply sat, and scowled, and waited.

Hordak’s new outfit was complete by the time Glimmer and the others had returned from the clone camp several hours later. They arrived to find him pulling one hulking bot wreckage after another out of the forest and adding them to a growing pile.  
“Entrapta!” Glimmer demanded. “Why is Hordak wearing a suit that makes him stronger?”  
Entrapta gazed for a moment at the purple crystal now once again glowing on Hordak’s chest, and replied cheerfully “Because it makes him so happy, and so useful!” Glimmer scowled, and Entrapta looked at her pleadingly. “Aw, but just look at him trying to help us! It was his idea! He’s already removed all those bots that were littering the forest in under half an hour. We can recycle them and use them to rebuild Etheria!”  
Glimmer was taken aback by this unusual display of tact and subtle manipulation from Entrapta but was forced to concede that she was right as they surveyed the mountain of bots.

Unbeknownst to Glimmer, Double Trouble had anticipated this precise scenario. They had dropped a few well-placed hints to Hordak about what a nuisance all those broken bots were, cluttering up the forest, and how pleased Glimmer would be to have them removed, and briefed Entrapta on exactly what to say to her. At that moment, Double Trouble watched slyly from the shadows, delighted with their handiwork.

Even Hordak had to admit that his new attire suited him magnificently. His upper torso was clad with some kind of shining, silver metal that Entrapta had skillfully reworked into powered armour, with the crystal set at his collarbone and radiating energy. Over this, he wore a sleeveless, slit-skirted robe of deepest blue, edged with something silvery that shimmered with many colours when it caught the light. His feet were clad in boots of the same metal as his armour, accented with a single, smaller purple crystal set on each shin. “Admit it” grinned Double Trouble at the startled group of friends as they stepped out of the shadows to stand at Entrapta’s side. “You love his new look!” They turned to Hordak, who stood as confidently as only eight feet of glittering steel, midnight blue and formidable ex-villainous intelligence ever could. “Big Brother can never steal the spotlight from you ever again, can he, sunshine?” Double Trouble said.

“Thank you.” answered Hordak, quietly, and scooped Entrapta up in his arms. “Thank you both.”  
“Oh, the pleasure is mine!” said Double Trouble, bowing deeply again. “Besides, we make a great team!” they added, exchanging a hi-five with Entrapta’s hair. “She is a magnificent woman. If you have any sense, and I know that you do, never let her go. You thought you lost her to Beast Island, and now, in a delightful twist of fate, you rebelled against your brother and got her back. Make the most of it.”

With that piece of enigmatic, blatantly personal advice, Double Trouble turned and was gone with an elegant swish of their long tail. They left everyone feeling as Double Trouble most liked to leave any party: stunned and speechless.

After they had gone, Adora and Bow were finally able to release the hissing, writhing Catra.  
“I hate that two-faced reptilian traitor!” she spat, claws out and fur bristling. Melog echoed her sentiments with an indignant “Maow!”  
Glimmer sighed. “Yes, they’re a traitor. That’s literally their job as a mercenary and it’s definitely wise to never, ever trust them to do anything you didn’t pay them for. I’m surprised they were so willing to help Entrapta without being bribed.” 

“Oh, I paid her with some shiny gold things I found on Horde Prime’s ship!” said Entrapta. “I was going to melt them down to use in circuits, but Double Trouble liked them better as brooches. I thought it was only fair to give them something after they were so helpful.”  
Glimmer nodded. “Well, that explains it, then.” She walked over to Adora and spoke, very clearly and very carefully while making sure she faced the trees. “I’m glad to see that Double Trouble survived the invasion. They could be very useful to us in the near future.” She was rewarded by the faintest glint of green eyes from somewhere far off in the trees and smiled in satisfaction. Double Trouble was a slippery character at the best of times, but they had a particularly useful skill-set and a penchant for acting. Glimmer had just the role for them in mind.

***

Nearby, Mermista sulked in a river while Seahawk dozed on the bank, daydreaming of burning ships.  
“Ugh, why does Hordak get a glamorous new outfit? After everything I’ve done for the Rebellion, surely I at least deserve some nicer shoes!” She slapped her tail irritably at the water’s surface.  
Seahawk woke with a start from his thoughts of flaming sails and searched for something tactful to say. “My dear Mermista, surely you know that your form is beyond compare? There is no outfit the Rebellion could give you that would be deserving of one so beautiful.” he volunteered, cautiously. Mermista had to smile a little at her boyfriend’s poetic flattery. “Whaaaatever.” she answered, and sank back beneath the water again to stare moodily up at the ripples above her. Here she was, in this miserable excuse for a body of water, with nothing but a crumbling kingdom irreparably smashed by war to her name, and a suave-but-annoying boyfriend with a love for arson. Life was so unfair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing I appreciate about Hordak is that he's got style, he's got flair, and he wears what he wears with the confidence of someone who KNOWS he's eight feet tall and looks scary as heck. I love the side slits in his skirt, like hell yes fam today we are going to invent weapons of mass destruction, but if the good people of Etheria can't see how amazing my legs are then WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT? On a more somber note, I felt it was really important to give him new clothes as a symbol of him beginning to detach his identity from Horde Prime again and become more himself. Entrapta supports him fully, and understands the absolute necessity of having clothing he feels comfortable in. It's a priority for her.  
> Catra is still angry with Double Trouble. She had begun to confide in them, and was hurt when they turned against her. Double Trouble was perhaps her last remaining "friend" at the time, and after that Catra starts to feel like she's really lost everything. A part of me would like to think Double Trouble knew she'd feel that way and hoped it would be a catalyst for some kind of breakdown that would bring personal growth.....I hope. I hope they're more than a heartless mercenary. I think Double Trouble is one of the most formidable characters in the series: their emotional intelligence level is off the charts and they really understand what makes people tick. I really, really enjoyed writing the interaction between them and Entrapta. She is so free of guile or mistrust, and so openly passionate about what she does. I think Double Trouble would respect her as someone who's also really good at and fully absorbed in what she does. As much as Double Trouble plays on other people's feelings, I do get the sense that they bear no great malice towards anyone, and would enjoy spending time with someone who'd appreciate their talent and doesn't constantly try to second guess their motives or figure them out.  
> The bit at the end about Mermista is both funny and poignant to me. She's so sarcastic and moody, but I think it's really a cover for her sadness and insecurity. I might write a separate fic about Salineas.


	6. Onwards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 50% angst, 50% logistics.

Several nights later, Glimmer and Micah summoned everyone for a meeting around the campfire.  
“Alright everyone, may we have your attention please?” called Micah, hurling a purple burst of magic into the air to call the meeting to order.  
“It has been five days since the Battle for Etheria.” he began. “We’ve made some important discoveries in that time, but now we need to move forward with rebuilding. Since I’m....a little out of touch with the rest of the world after my time on Beast Island, Glimmer and I have decided that she will remain as Queen and I will act as her advisor for now. Tomorrow I will head back to Brightmoon with Spinarella and Netossa to get things up and running there again, and re-quaint myself with not living in a toxic dump.”

  
“Thanks, Dad,” said Glimmer, rising to her feet. “It’s so good to have you back, and I’m sure you’ll do a great job in Brightmoon! Bow, Adora, Catra, and I will be making a short tour of the kingdoms of Etheria to take stock of the damage. Mermista and Seahawk, we would like to invite you to stay in Brightmoon since rebuilding Salineas may be....a long term project. And yes, we have restocked the icecream supplies since you were last there.”  
“Thank you, Glimmer, for your kindness,” said Mermista. “We’ll leave tomorrow with your Dad.”  
“Good. You’ll be safe and comfortable there.”

Glimmer turned to the feisty little ice princess beside her. “Frosta, I understand that you need to return home to your kingdom? You’ve done some great work with the clones! You may take as many of them as will go with you to help with the rebuilding, and afterward, if they wish to stay, they can become your citizens.”  
“Hooray!” yelled Frosta. “I love the clones. There’s a few hundred of them who really love ice and I’ll bet they’ll come with me. I can’t wait to show them around!”

  
“That brings me to my next point.” continued Glimmer. “We have about two thousand clones to rehome right now, and probably way more in the future. Perfuma, you seem to like them too; do you think some of them will go with you to Plumeria?”  
“Yes, I would be delighted to welcome them into my home.” nodded Perfuma. “Not all of them are ready to make such a monumental decision about where they’ll live permanently, but I know of fifty or so that want to make my kingdom their home. They may seem a little strange, but they’re strong and smart and hardworking. With a little time and kindness, they’ll make great citizens. Now more than ever, we have to embrace the spirit of community and work together to fix what’s broken and welcome our new friends! Adjusting to life outside of a clone army won’t be easy for them.”

  
“That’s right.” agreed Micah. “Every clone must be allowed to choose their own name, profession, and a place to live. They’ve willingly volunteered to lend us their strength and knowledge of engineering to help us rebuild, and we must treat them with dignity and respect. Having meaningful jobs to do will help them process what’s happened to them and develop a healthier...sense of self. I spoke to them yesterday, and a few of them wish to go to Brightmoon to work in the palace. One of them is Hermann!” he gestured to the smiling clone who was seated across the campfire beside Entrapta and Hordak.

  
“My beloved brothers and sisters, I have at last received my true calling!” he exclaimed. “My most earnest desire is to become a royal chef, and spread the joy of good food across Etheria!”  
Everyone clapped and cheered, and Swiftwind whinnied in approval. “That’s great, Hermann!” he said. “Glimmer, we should send him to Elberon for a few weeks: they really know how to cook and I think he’d get along well with the crowd there!”  
Glimmer nodded her approval. “Hermann, if you want to go to Elberon first, I’m sure they’ll gladly give you a head start on your training to become a chef.”  
“What a wondrous opportunity! I will gladly accept it.” Hermann answered, clasping his hands beneath his chin and beaming.  
Entrapta gave him a double hi-five and hugged him with her hair. “You’ll visit me lots in Dryl, won’t you?” she inquired.  
“Of course I will! I may need your help designing some new kitchen gadgets. I have an idea for a machine that cooks food very fast, and one that cooks it slowly.”  
“Fascinating! I’m in!” agreed Entrapta.

“Which brings us to our new guest,” announced Glimmer, staring into the shadows. Adora had been on the lookout for them and had nudged Glimmer a few moments before when she spotted the familiar figure.  
“Double Trouble, step forward. I have an assignment for you.”

  
Two green eyes shone out from the darkness, shortly followed by a mouthful of sharp white teeth and then the rest of Double Trouble’s elegant figure. “Hello there, Glimmer. You know me too well, it seems. What can I do for you, your Highness?”  
“I want you to help the clones find their identities. After seeing your work with Hordak yesterday, it’s clear to me that you really are the best in the business when it comes to....self expression. You really understand what makes a person tick and the elements that create their characters.”  
Double Trouble inclined their head in acknowledgment, pleased. “I do take great pride in my work,” they answered.  
“Excellent.” Glimmer said and pulled out a large, heavy bag from behind her. “Every clone will need a new outfit. They are fast learners, as I am sure you have observed, and you can train some of them to sew your designs. You will be paid for your work,” she tossed the bag with some effort at Double Trouble’s feet, “and I will allocate you all the fabric you need from the mills near Brightmoon, paid out of my own treasuries.”

While she spoke, Double Trouble was rummaging through the bag, their grin spreading ever wider.  
“Ooh, this will do quite nicely!” they said, pulling out a particularly large emerald. “It matches my skin tone so well!”  
“That’s just a down payment,” said Glimmer. “To ensure the...continued quality of your work, we’ll give you five sea-opals when you begin, two fire rubies for every hundred clones you give makeovers to, and another payment double this size when your work is completed.” Double Trouble’s eyes lit up, but Glimmer kept going. “We have allocated you a space near Brightmoon to work, and everything you need to create clothing on such a vast scale will be provided. You’ll start tomorrow with Frosta’s clones. They’ll need warm clothing if they’re going to live in a kingdom of ice and snow. I assume you’ll be wanting hair dye and styling products, too?”

For the first time in their life, Double Trouble found themselves speechless for a moment. “Y-yes...I most certainly will!” they said, recovering quickly. “Tell me, Queen Glimmer, what has prompted you to make such a...hefty financial decision?” they asked, smiling but genuinely cautious. Was this show of generosity a trap?  
Glimmer tilted her chin up and smirked, just a little, before answering. “Well, my crafty friend, this “hefty financial decision” will clothe the clones who will rebuild our cities and secure our alliance with them, stimulate the local economies at the mills of Brightmoon, and keep my citizens happy and well-fed. Oh, and next year, I’ll get some of what I pay them for the fabric back as taxes, which I’ll use to continue building public resources and infrastructure. So, this one decision buys me the undying good favour of my citizens, the esteem of my friends, thousands more loyal soldiers should the need for them ever arise.....and it will keep you, the most devious of all Etherians, busy for a little while.”

Double Trouble laughed and applauded. “Bravo, Glimmer, bravo! A truly wonderful performance. You’re even smarter than I’d thought you were.”  
“Thank you!” said Glimmer, taking a bow. She glanced at Micah, Adora, Bow, and Catra grinning behind her, then back at Double Trouble. “Let’s say I’ve had some good advice, and I’ve also learned a thing or two from you.”  
“Always a pleasure to be of service to you, Queen Glimmer. Now if you’ll excuse me, my career as a stage director is about to begin! Thousands of clones to cast and outfit for their new roles.....oh, the possibilities! Who will they become? What paths will they choose? I can’t wait to find out!” Double Trouble bowed once more, then slung the bag of treasure over one shoulder and strode off into the darkness. Catra, Adora, Glimmer, and Bow all laughed and hi-fived each other. “Now that’s how to hire a mercenary!” chuckled Adora.

“We have one final point to address,” said Glimmer, turning back to the group.  
“We need to clean up the Fright Zone. Perhaps we should assign the rest of the clones to that job. Scorpia, I believe the land once belonged to your family.”  
“Yeah, I guess it did before we gave it to Hordak, along with the Black Garnet,” Scorpia answered, scratching her head with one claw. “Shouldn’t we ask him if he’ll let us have it back?”  
“Ugh, he probably stole it from your parents, killed them, and lied about it,” Catra said, cynically.  
Hordak bristled. “I did no such thing!” he snarled.“I don’t believe you for a second, Hordak. You started a war that lasted several decades! What else would we expect from you?” Glimmer yelled back at him.

  
Hordak rose to his feet, fists clenched despite Entrapta trying to assure him that she believed what he said. “I may be a warlord,” he snarled, “and a tyrant, but I am neither a thief nor a liar! That kind of behaviour was always Shadow Weaver’s specialty, and she joined me later. The rulers of the Scorpion kingdom surrendered their lands and their runestone to me voluntarily! I am weary of you treating me as though I am inferior. I understand that you do not yet trust me, but in recent days I have done everything I can to appease your petty whims. How dare you doubt my veracity! The insolence!” He turned and stormed off into the darkness, shoving Entrapta aside as he left. She stumbled and almost fell, catching herself with her hair at the last moment.  
Hordak halted, horrified. “Entrapta, I....” he broke off, straightened and ran into the night, leaving a shocked silence in his wake.

***

Hordak pushed his way blindly through the Whispering Woods, neither knowing nor caring where he was going. He just wanted to get as far away as possible, to be alone and think. He passed Double Trouble on his way, and even they skipped rapidly out of his path without daring to try one of their usual razor-edged quips. An enraged Hordak was a force to be reckoned with.

  
He walked for maybe half an hour, climbing up a little hill until he reached a small clearing at the top. There, he sat down at last on a log and stared up at the stars.  
Minutes later, he heard the rustling of a few leaves and soft footsteps coming through the trees behind him. “Catra,” he said curtly, without turning around.  
“Hordak,” she answered, taking a seat nearby with Melog lying at her feet.

  
Neither of them said anything for a long time.

  
“I shouldn’t have said that to you earlier,” said Catra, finally. “I know you hate lying. I’m sorry. For all the lies I’ve told to you....especially the one about Entrapta.”  
“Acknowledged. I despise dishonesty.” Hordak replied, staring straight ahead. He sighed, then looked down, a little awkwardly. “I must admit I have found myself a little adrift of late...I do not know what to make of myself among these Etherian princesses and their polite rules.”  
“I know, right!” Catra exclaimed. “In the Horde, shouting at people was an effective form of communication and if you were mean to someone, you could usually get them to do whatever you wanted. Now we have to say please and thank you, and pretend to be all nice and friendly.”

  
Hordak laughed, a gruff, resonant sound that came from somewhere deep within his chest. Catra sat up a little straighter, surprised. She’d never heard him laugh before.  
“I am forced to admit, Catra,” he said, “that I miss the days when I could yell at people to get out of my sanctum, and they would run away and leave me alone!”  
Catra chuckled, too. “People are so annoying, aren’t they! Sometimes all I want is a little peace and quiet, and I can’t get anyone to take me seriously until I hiss at them or something....and then suddenly, my behaviour is “unacceptable and aggressive,” and people have hurt feelings just because I told them to piss off in a way they didn’t like.”

  
Both of them were laughing now. “My personal favourite tactic was growling, and lurking dramatically in the shadows,” said Hordak. “It worked especially well when I had red teeth and glowing eyes.”  
“Oh yeah, I remember!” giggled Catra. “It was so spooky, and I was terrified of you the first time I saw you! Secretly, I wanted to learn how to be that fearsome myself, so I practiced my scary face for years until I had it just right.”  
“We were respected, then. Now....” Hordak trailed off, grim-faced. “Now I am not even sure that I respect myself. I no longer know who I am, or what I believe. The only guiding force in my life is Entrapta. I do not know what to do.”  
“It’s not easy, is it?” said Catra, looking up at one of the moons hanging above them. “Things were simpler back then. Your goal was to impress Horde Prime and mine was to take down Adora and conquer Etheria. Now, everything is different. We changed sides, and the rules have changed too. I know now that what I really wanted was the love and respect of Adora, and I guess you were seeking validation. You wanted to know that you were worth something! We both did.”  
Hordak nodded, his ears drooping a little. “That is correct, Catra. Our motives have changed, and it is no longer acceptable to use aggression to achieve our respective goals. I deeply regret the effect that my anger has on Entrapta, but I am unsure about how to alter that.”

  
“I know how you feel,” said Catra, wrapping her tail around herself. Melog licked her face, consolingly. “Adora has literal scars on her back from my claws, and I’m so afraid that one day I’ll get so angry that I’ll hurt her again... or even Glimmer...or Entrapta....or Scorpia.” With each name, her head lowered a little more, and she exhaled, slow and sad. “But I’m learning to be a different person now,” she said, sitting up again. “Perfuma is holding daily meditation classes and I’ve been attending them. Nobody knows how to embrace positivity like she does. It sounds dumb, I know, but it really works! You should try it out, and bring your nerdy girlfriend. I’m sure she’ll be “fascinated.”  
“Entrapta is not my--” Hordak gave up, and sighed. “Alright, then. I will attend these meditation classes. Perfuma is well-liked by the other princesses, and perhaps I will learn something of her secrets and mannerisms. I must begin to learn the rules of Etherian society somehow.”  
“Great!” smiled Catra. “You can start becoming a “good Etherian citizen” right now by doing something small: apologizing to Entrapta.”

  
Hordak got up, took a few steps, and then stopped. “But Glimmer....still hates me.”  
“Oh, Sparkles?” Catra laughed. “Don’t worry about her. Just do your best and she’ll come around eventually. She hasn’t exactly been too keen on me, either, but over time our relationship has improved. Come on, ya big mope! Let’s head back to the fire.”

***

Entrapta ran out to meet them as they returned to the camp, her eyes wide and her hair flying behind her. “Hordak! There you are,” she said, hugging him. “I was so worried that I’d lost you again...Oh! Your ears are drooping; are you okay?”  
Hordak pulled her to his chest and held her tightly for a moment. “Entrapta, I apologise for my actions earlier. I should never have taken my anger out on you. I will attempt to control my emotions and express them more...constructively in the future.”  
“Thanks, Hordak.“ said Entrapta, shyly. “I understand that it’s not easy for you to be surrounded by so many people, especially when they accuse you of things that aren’t true. I know how that feels.”

Glimmer looked a little guilty but said nothing. Beside her, Adora smiled quietly at Catra as she sat down again. “Well done. I am so proud of you for talking to him and bringing him back.” Catra blushed a little and took Adora’s hand. Melog purred.

  
“Don’t worry though, Hordak!” Entrapta continued. “I’ll always be your friend, and I really appreciate you working on your anger problems.”  
Hordak smiled down at her and buried his face in her hair.

  
“Seriously?” said Mermista, staring at the embracing pair. “Is everyone actually okay with this weird relationship?”  
Catra swatted her in the face with her tail. “Yes. Yes, we are. Entrapta is a strong, independent woman who can do what she wants, and Hordak is a terrifying man-bat-clone thing who loves Entrapta and is working to be a better person!” Catra said, gesturing animatedly. “Besides! Look at us! I have fluffy ears and a tail, and I’m dating She-Ra!”Adora ginned proudly as Catra continued. “Your boyfriend burns ships for fun and you can grow a fishtail! Glimmer, the queen of Brightmoon, dates an archer who refuses to wear a normal shirt for no discernible reason-"

"Hey, it'd be a crime not to show off a stomach this fine!" protested Bow.

"Okaaaay....you do you, Bow!" Catra chuckled. "My point is, we’re all weird, and you can’t call out Entrapta and Hordak without calling us all out!”  
Everyone laughed. Mermista sulked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Hordak and Catra will eventually become great friends. They understand the trauma of being immersed into that pool of green slime and tormented by Horde Prime, and are both insecure characters who ultimately want to be loved. Also, I bet someone's going to ask why I moved Hermann to Brightmoon: I really wanted him to pick his own destiny rather than just being a "follower" of Entrapta. His brain might be a wee bit scrambled, but he's charming and very sweet and I think he'll do just fine. Clone autonomy is a topic that's very dear to my heart, and I very much hope to develop them into separate characters who embrace who they are and develop their own culture. This process would take years, given the severe trauma they've been through, but I think that it's a beautiful idea for them to heal with Etheria as they rebuild and find their new homes.


	7. The Scorpion Kingdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hordak tells Scorpia about the beginning of the war, the history of her kingdom, and how her grandfather came to pass it on to him.

Hordak slept fitfully that night, and woke before dawn, shivering despite being shrouded in Entrapta’s hair. He disentangled himself, cursing quietly, and crept away into the stillness of the mist-shrouded forest. He couldn’t be still; he wanted to pace and fret. On his way past the clone camp, he was surprised to see a figure sitting alone atop the hill. It was Scorpia. Cautiously, he made his way through the dew-slick grass towards her, and as he drew near she startled.  
“Oh! Hordak! Hi.....uh, I didn’t expect to see you out here.” she laughed, a little nervously. “How can you move so quietly? I mean, we’re both eight feet tall but I’ve never been good at the whole... sneaking thing,” she added.  
“My apologies. I did not intend to startle you,” said Hordak, gravely. He was unsure of what to say next; despite Scorpia being one of his longest-serving officers in the Horde, he had spoken with her very seldom. 

Thankfully, Scorpia broke the silence.  
“Hordak, I’m sorry about last night...I didn’t mean for it to seem like I assumed anything about the Fright Zone, or I thought you were lying....”  
“No, Scorpia,” Hordak said, gently cutting off her stream of apologies. “There is nothing for you to be sorry for.”  
“Wait, but Hordak, there is!” she insisted. “Maybe not for me, directly, but I was thinking last night that even if you are...I mean, were the bad guy, your claim to the Fright Zone is still legitimate since my grandparents gave it to you. By the laws of my own kingdom, I guess, I have no right to take it back from you without asking.”  
“A curious, but rational line of thinking,” said Hordak, head tilted a little to one side as he listened.  
“You are correct, Scorpia. Your grandparents did indeed legitimately transfer their kingdom and its runestone to me, regardless of what Queen Glimmer may choose to believe. However, the war is over. My days of conquest are finished, and I suspect that for a time, Glimmer will imprison me for my crimes against Etheria. What use have I for lands or titles? I am a nobody with nothing left to my name but failure.”  
“THAT’S NOT TRUE!” Scorpia interrupted, waving her claws frantically. “I don’t care that you’re big scary ex-warlord Hordak, you’re my friend and my friends do not get to say such negative things about themselves! You’re not a nobody! You’re not a failure! What would Entrapta say, huh?”

“It is likely that Entrapta would tell me,” his eyes widened and his voice suddenly took on a manic, squeaky tone, “Our failures often lead to our greatest successes! Experiencing failure just means that you’re trying something different that you haven’t done before....it doesn’t mean that you ARE a failure. In fact, failure is the friend of every great scientist as long as you learn from it, and don’t let it stop you! Imperfections can be beautiful!” Hordak finished and looked over to Scorpia, who was in fits of laughter.  
“Hahaha....oh wow.....your Entrapta impression is really good. Man, you two just get each other, ya know?” she said, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. “But that’s right! You’re not a failure...I mean, technically, since you changed sides before the end of the war, you didn’t lose it. You won! You saved Entrapta, you threw your big mean brother off a...really tall thing! You have new friends and you’re on your way to beginning a new life. You’re a winner, Hordak!”

“I suppose that you are correct....” he paused, as though experiencing some great internal conflict, “...but the emotions that I am experiencing are not presently aligned with your statements.”  
“Oh!” said Scorpia. “Of course! It’s...it’s normal to experience these kinds of mixed feelings when your life has changed suddenly. You’ll feel a little weird for a while, and that’s okay! You should talk to Perfuma! She’s great at processing complex emotions.” She frowned, then exclaimed, “Hey, Hordak! I have a question for you. Can you...tell me about my family? About how you met them and how things were when you crashed on Etheria...if..if you don’t mind, that is....”  
“Alright, then,” said Hordak, resignedly, sitting down. Scorpia sat beside him, and as the first rays of the sun crept up the hill, he began.

“After I was left to die on the front lines by Horde Prime, a portal to Etheria opened up and pulled my ship through. I alone survived the crash. Your grandparents found me, barely conscious in the field beside the wreckage of my ship. I must have crawled out of it and then lost consciousness briefly.   
They carried me back to their home and treated my wounds. Scorpions are known for their kindness and loyalty, and your grandparents were no exception. Despite my obviously otherworldly origins and deranged raving about Horde Prime, they nursed me back to health. I seem to recall them having a nickname for me, on account of my bearing some resemblance to a nocturnal, winged, Etherian creature. Bat-man. Yes, that was it. They called me Bat-man since I had no name of my own. They kept me hidden, helped me learn to walk again, and taught me something of how to be my own person. A few years later, you were born. You were the first child born to your parents and the delight of the entire Scorpion Kingdom. However, at the time there was a minor feud between Angella of Brightmoon and the Scorpion Kingdom, and when the time came for the official celebration of your first birthday, that feud became a great divide between the kingdoms. You may have experienced some....discrimination on account of your appearances?”  
“Yes,” said Scorpia, sadly. “I didn’t look like any of the other princesses, and my parents said that although they tried to be polite, people from other kingdoms couldn’t hide that they thought I was weird.”  
“It was unfortunate that on the day that all the princesses of Etheria came together for your party, they also discovered me. I seem to recall them shrieking at your parents that they were a family of freaks hiding a monster....and that was all it took. Your grandparents sprang to our defense, your father may have accidentally stung someone in the ensuing shouting match, and then years of quiet resentment erupted into real conflict.”  
“Wow, we started a war because people insulted us?” Scorpia questioned.  
“Not a war, exactly....after many years of tolerating discrimination from the other kingdoms, your grandparent's patience wore thin.” Hordak looked uncomfortable. “It was I that urged them to declare war on Brightmoon. I had never forgotten my brother’s rejection, and I saw a window of opportunity to conquer Etheria. Despite your family’s kindness; rage, sadness and the thirst for conquest still burned hot in my heart. I took my own pain and used it to kindle your family’s anger. In the first attack on Brightmoon, one of your mothers, Anida, was killed. Your other mother, Rachne, was heartbroken, and after that, there was no going back. We threw everything we could into seeking revenge and recruited anyone who would fight for us. Over the years, we took one village after another and crept slowly over Etheria. My military experience from the Horde was paying off, but it came at a price.” Hordak paused, took a deep breath, and continued. 

“The loyalty of your people compelled them to charge into danger, even into open fire to rescue fallen comrades. One by one, your family and their subjects fell. After your grandmother died, your grandfather, blind with rage and grief, transferred the kingdom to me. He knew that it was not likely that he would survive much longer, but he saw into my heart, saw that it was the heart of a soldier, and believed that somehow, I would live on and take vengeance. He was correct. My drive to prove myself was endless. He perished a few days later in hand to hand combat and your mother.....Rachne....she was the last one left. I remember her face as she handed you to me, barely four years old, and told me to take care of you. I begged her not to go, but she told me that she had to fight for Anida, for your grandparents, and most of all for you. She wanted you to have a future where you felt like you belonged. I never saw her again.” Hordak’s voice was ragged, and he looked over to see tears in Scorpia’s eyes. “And after that?” she ventured.

“After that, I took up their cause and continued the war. My soldiers were no longer my friends, so I hurled them, once after another, into combat. My body was still weak, but my mind churned like a machine. I was merciless. I took prisoners and built weapons and tanks and robots. I built myself an empire and gave myself a name. Hordak. In time, I devoted myself entirely to conquering Etheria and regaining my brother’s approval....but I never quite forgot the promise I made to your mother. I made sure you were taken care of, and in time I made you a Force Captain. I thought that raising you as a soldier would make your family proud, believed that knowing your history would cause you grief and make you weak. I....almost gave up that first week after Rachne died.“   
His eyes hardened. “I almost stopped the war, but then I remembered my brother, my weakness, my failure, and then I swore to never let emotion distract me again.“  
He glanced back at Scorpia.   
“The rest, you already know. Shadow Weaver joined me and took the Black Garnet for herself. She never told me of the power it could hold for you, or how you could connect to it, and when I found out, I presumed it would put you in danger. I suppose she desired it entirely for herself.   
Adora fell through another portal, and I took her in. I found Catra soon afterwards, as a kitten in a small village in the mountains. Everything around her burned, and yet she still had the audacity to snarl and bite when I picked her up by the scruff.”  
“That’s my wildcat!” laughed Scorpia.

“Yes, she has always been ferocious.” smiled Hordak. “I liked her spirit and decided to give her to Shadow Weaver to train alongside Adora, who took to her immediately. They were inseparable. Little did I know at the time that Shadow Weaver despised Catra’s strong spirit, and rejected her in favour of the power she sensed in Adora. That rejection ultimately made Catra one of the fiercest and most relentless fighters I have ever seen, and she went on to change the course of the war.”  
“Yeah, Catra took Shadow Weaver’s rejection really hard,” said Scorpia. “She tried and tried to win her favour, but she never seemed to get it quite right. She never felt good enough.”  
“Hmm. A familiar sentiment,” said Hordak, thoughtfully, then composed himself. 

“Scorpia, what I intended to say to you earlier is that I wish to transfer the Scorpion Kingdom and the Black Garnet back to you, so that you may have a home and glean what good there is to be had from the power I once held. I have every confidence that you will rule it with justice and truth. Your kindness will be more of a testament to your family than my decades of war ever were. You alone can undo the disgrace I brought on your kingdom.”  
“Wow, Hordak! I...I don’t know what to say!” Scorpia stammered.  
“You will find the title deed for the kingdom and the crown that belonged to your grandfather inside a panel on the bottom left of the back wall of my Sanctum. Run your claw along the base of the wall until you feel a notch, then lift upwards and slightly to the right to open the compartment.”  
“I get to begin my reign with a QUEST to find a secret panel in your sanctum that contains real TREASURE?” Scorpia gasped.   
Despite himself, Hordak could not help but smile a little at her enthusiasm. “Your grandfather would be so proud of you,” he said, and then was nearly crushed in the spiny embrace of the weeping Scorpia.

“The...other clones,” he gasped, a few moments later “how are they doing?” His distraction ploy worked, and Scorpia let go. He winced as the blood flow returned to his limbs.  
“Oh, right, those guys....” She paused to think for a moment. “They’re doing pretty great, overall, but sometimes they still get these....fits? Like, they’ll just stare off into space or mutter about Horde Prime or break down crying. We have to keep them busy. Soooo busy.”  
“The process of differentiation from Horde Prime is not easy.” agreed Hordak. “I was fortunate to have your family to help me at the time when I was suffering through the same process. It was as though there was a vast emptiness in my mind, and I felt as though I had neither place nor purpose. Never in my life have I felt so alone, or so hopeless.”  
“Oh, that sounds awful!” said Scorpia. “Is there anything we can do to help them?  
“Keep them busy, as you have already been doing,” said Hordak. “As long as they feel that they are meaningfully employed, they will be fairly content. Praise them often. Keep them together in groups of at least four. If they begin to panic, get them to huddle together.” He twitched his ears a little and polished one fang with the tip of his tongue, contemplating. “Your...friend, Perfuma...she leads meditation classes, does she not?” he questioned.  
“Yes, Perfuma very much is my friend. Wow, she is such a great friend. And yes, she teaches such good breathing exercises and things that make your mind go suuuper calm.” Scorpia enthused.  
“Excellent. Request that she shows the clones how to sit cross-legged and focus on their breathing. Ask them to find a pebble to hold and count one hundred slow breaths.”  
“One hundred? Will they really do that?” Scorpia gasped.  
“Yes. They are trained to be compliant and they have no concept of boredom. Having this simple task to achieve will occupy them, calm their minds, and ground their bodies. Your mother, Anida, taught this technique to me.” Hordak answered, softly. 

Scorpia met his eyes, and nodded slowly. She looked up at the sun, rising higher into the sky. An hour had passed in a blink.  
"We should really be getting back. Glimmer probably has some announcements to make, and I guess I should probably tell her that I'll be taking the rest of the clones to.... to my kingdom, with me!"  
Hordak inclined his head in agreement, and rose to his feet. Side by side, the two friends made their way back down the hill.

***

Back at the camp, Glimmer called another meeting.  
“Okay everyone, we’ve had a great time celebrating our victory, camping out, and occasionally getting chased by gigantic centipedes....but now we need to move forward with the repair of Etheria!”  
This was met with cheering and applause.   
Smiling, Glimmer continued. “Dad, Netossa, Spinnerella, Mermista, Seahawk, clones....” she took a breath, “you will return to Brightmoon today, and drop Hermann off at Elberon on the way to begin his culinary training!”  
Hermann grinned enormously, surrounded by four equally happy clones who embraced him and patted him on the back.  
“Perfuma, Frosta, have you assembled the clones who want to go with you?”   
“Yeah!” yelled Frosta, waving excitedly at a large group of a few hundred clones milling around nearby. They waved back. 

“Oh, they look so happy!” said Perfuma, smiling rapturously. “These lovely gentlemen will be going to Plumeria with me!” she said, pointing proudly to a cluster of maybe fifty clones adorned in flower crowns and neck garlands. 

“Scorpia, I take it you’ll be heading to the Fright Zone?” Glimmer questioned, glancing a little nervously at Hordak.  
“Yes! Hordak has very kindly returned the Scorpion Kingdom and its crown to me and told me some of its histories. Oh, I am so excited to start making it a nice place to live!” She clapped her claws together in delight.   
“Good,” said Glimmer, satisfied. “The rest of the clones will go with you, then, to help you rebuild. It’ll keep them busy and happy while they decide what they want to do with their new lives on Etheria. Catra, Adora, Bow, and I will start our Tour-De-Etheria by helping you move them to your kingdom.”

She turned to Hordak and Entrapta and sighed a little.  
“That brings me to you two. Hordak, I WAS going to send you to Beast Island....but in light of recent events I’ve -”  
“Wait a minute, Beast Island!” exclaimed Entrapta, excitedly. “But Hordak and I would LOVE to go to Beast Island!”   
“Entrapta, NO!” Hordak exclaimed, eyes wide with horror.  
“ENTRAPTA YES!” she retaliated. “Just think of all the tech we could find there! And the robot I built....oh I promised I’d go back to get her....plus, we do need a loooot of First Ones crystals if we’re going to download all the data from those clones on Prime’s ship!”  
“Ugh, I forgot that I asked you to deal with those horrible clones.” Glimmer grumbled. “Fine. You can go to Beast Island, for ONE week. Just don’t expect us to-”  
“Ooooh, we can take them in Mara’s ship today and do a flyover of Etheria!” Adora cut in cheerfully.  
“Plus, you know, we can make sure they get there safely and have what they need because they ARE our friends, aren’t they, Glimmer?” Bow nudged Glimmer insistently with his elbow.  
“Ok, ok. Fine.” she relented. “We’ll be able to survey the overall damage to some parts of Etheria from the air, so I suppose it’s a good use of our time.”   
“HOORAY!” yelled Entrapta, hugging Hordak and Emily, who still didn’t look convinced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to lie; I loved writing about the Scorpion kingdom. It's real, and raw, and heartbreaking. For me, as much as I love the She-Ra series, it leaves so much unexplained. I guess it leaves people free to make their own conclusions...so my theory is that there's no way Hordak could have assembled the Horde on his own. Not injured, alone, and confused on a strange planet in another dimension. Somebody had to help him get started, but who, and why?   
> The one piece of information we get about his early days on Etheria is that Hordak crash-landed in the Scorpion Kingdom and the Scorpions welcomed him with open arms, according to Scorpia. You could argue that Hordak lied to her about this, and about his crash on Etheria (he makes no mention of anyone else being with him) but that doesn't make sense since Hordak is a) shit at lying and b) hates it with a burning passion. Shadow Weaver wouldn't have joined him at that point in history, so to my mind, the most rational assumption to make is that Scorpia is telling the truth.  
>  My aim in this chapter was to construct her back story and write about Hordak's possible early experiences on Etheria. War is messy and we know from our own history that it often starts over really stupid crap. Scorpia says at one point (to Frosta) she's different from the other princesses and doesn't fit in, so I took that theme and ran with it. It's unlikely that Hordak arrived on a perfectly harmonious planet with no conflict at all between kingdoms. Something had to give, and I decided on racial prejudice, because....yeah. I don't really need to explain that one. Let's say I was doing some serious grieving and processing over the general state of the world when I wrote this.   
> Anyway, I really, really loved writing about Hordak's relationships with the Scorpions, and it's something I'll continue building on in future chapters! Hope you enjoyed this, and feel free to leave comments/opinions/personal headcanons below!


	8. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer and Entrapta have a fight, and Scorpia steps in to offer mediation.
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to all the people I love who have autism. You deserve to have your voices heard, and to be taken seriously.

Ordinarily, packing up a war camp and the remnants of a gigantic multi-day party would take a great deal of time. However, with the combined magical efforts of various persons and many well-trained, organised clones, the tents came down and rolled up in short order. Everyone laughed and chattered animatedly as they worked while Glimmer teleported about, coordinating their efforts and making sure nothing was left unaccounted for. With so much on her mind, she wasn’t concentrating as much as she should have been on one teleport and landed directly in the path of Hordak, who was carrying boxes full of Entrapta’s equipment towards Mara’s ship. He started and nearly tripped over her, but managed to right himself. Glimmer flinched instinctively, holding up her hands over her head to protect herself from....the eight-foot-tall warlord who had terrorised Etheria for decades and was now fumbling desperately to avoid dropping his girlfriend’s collection of volumetric flasks.

“Ugh!” exclaimed Glimmer, crossly, and teleported a few metres away rapidly. “Why do you have to be so tall and freaky looking?” she demanded. Hordak bared his teeth and flicked one ear at her briefly, but continued walking. He had gone to Perfuma’s meditation classes for the last three days and was determined to control his outbursts of rage. He counted his breaths as he walked away, and thought of Entrapta.

Glimmer watched him go, perplexed, then was nearly knocked over by an exuberant Etrapta zooming by on Emily.  
“Oh! Sorry Glimmer. Didn’t see you there.” Entrapta apologised, steadying Glimmer with her hair.  
Glimmer dusted herself off, frowning. “Oh, that’s alright....it’s not like your clumsiness and your weird evil boyfriend could make my morning any more stressful, could it?”  
“Hey, that wasn’t very nice!” Entrapta protested. Emily beeped her agreement. “Hordak’s not evil anymore. He’s even been going to Perfuma’s meditation classes!” she said, proudly.

Glimmer fumed. She’d been thinking about this for a while, thinking about how ridiculous it was that the war was over and now everyone was just pretending that everything was fine and everybody could suddenly be trusted. Enough was enough.  
“Entrapta, what do you see in Hordak anyway?” she snapped. “You do realise he was just using you in the Fright Zone to build weapons, right?”  
“Oh yeah, and you weren’t? You never visited me in Dryl until you wanted me to join the Princess Alliance!” Entrapta replied, with unusual venom.  
“Well, at least we had you building weapons for a good reason!”  
“It’s true that Hordak was a little....misguided...but he never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to, or treated me like I was stupid. He let me be myself and he respected me for what I did......Glimmer, all my life I’ve felt like my interests were considered boring and nobody liked me for me. You and the others in the Alliance only liked me for what I could do for you-”  
“That’s not true!”  
“But it is! Every time I start talking or doing something that isn’t precisely what you want me to do, it’s “Focus, Entrapta” or “Ugh, Entrapta” or “Come on, Entrapta.” You and your princess friends dragged me around on a leash! You treated me like I was worthless unless I was doing something you cared about!”  
“It’s only because you’re so...unaware of the bigger picture.”

“No, Glimmer!” Scorpia spoke up, stepping in angrily. She’d felt this conversation coming for a while, and when she heard raised voices she knew which direction to head in. “No more excuses. Entrapta’s right. You all talk about how the Horde treated me, but you never mention that the Horde treated Entrapta better than you did! If it had been Adora or Bow trapped behind those doors when you left, wouldn’t you have gone back, just to check? Just to get the body? The Princess Alliance was willing to risk everything for a chance to save you, but Entrapta, oh no. She’s just the weapons lady. Bow can replace her!”

“Ironically, Bow is someone who has kinda always respected me....and that’s another thing!” Entrapta added, sharply. “Stop making fun of him for liking tech when it’s not convenient for you! He loves making those trick arrows. Don’t laugh at him!”  
“Entrapta....I...I’m sorry.” Glimmer said, shamefaced. “We never should have treated you like you were less important than us.”

Entrapta smiled and hugged Glimmer, but as she stepped back, Glimmer’s face hardened. “I still don’t understand why you’re friends with that creepy clone! He tried to destroy our planet, remember?”  
For one brief moment, Scorpia thought that Entrapta might actually be incited towards physical violence. Her eyes glowed scarlet with rage and her hair coiled around her like a nest of vipers.  
“His goal was never mindless destruction! He had a purpose! He wanted to earn his brother’s favour.”  
“But he’s evil, and you betrayed-”

  
“It’s easy for you, Glimmer, isn’t it? You’ve always been on the “good side” without ever questioning what it is that makes you good, and this is the result! The alien leader of the Horde Army was kinder, more respectful, and more forgiving toward me than you ever were. You didn’t give me a single good reason to pick your side rather than his. Why should I fight for the Princesses, who let me grow up alone in a huge empty castle? Why should I care for the fate of a planet whose citizens never cared for me? You’re not actually better than Hordak, you’re just more privileged! You had loving parents, a luxurious castle, and magical powers, and you still managed to grow up into a whiny, sulky, entitled little bitch!”  
“You have no idea what it was like for me, growing up without a father!” screamed Glimmer.

  
“Oh yeah?” Entrapta screamed back, “Well guess what, Princess, BOTH of my parents are dead and have been dead for decades and NOBODY CARES. Adora has no idea who her parents are! Scorpia’s moms are gone! Having a dead parent doesn’t make you specially entitled in this world; it just makes you another stereotypical main character with a sad backstory!”  
“Well, you still can’t imagine the pressure I was under, growing up in a war zone, raised to be the ruler of Brightmoon, and suddenly having to take over from my mom!”  
“I did all that when I was about ten! I ruled Dryl, alone, and built my own citizens and my own friends!”  
“Maybe you wouldn’t have been so alone if you weren’t so annoying!”

Scorpia dove between the two of them before Entrapta’s hair could get any closer to Glimmer’s neck.  
“Okay, okay, everyone, calm down!” she said, keeping her voice low and her stinger held high. “This isn’t a Pain Contest. We’ve all suffered, here. I could join in with the screaming and say that I lost my parents, my people AND my kingdom, but I know that would be pointless.” Glimmer and Entrapta both looked shamefaced, but Scorpia kept going. “Catra doesn’t even know who her parents were, figures they’re probably dead, was raised in an army by an extremely manipulative maternal figure who never loved her, spent most of her life pining after Adora and didn’t express her feelings, had a catastrophic mental breakdown, tried to kill Entrapta, hurt me, abused Adora, manipulated Hordak, nearly killed literally everyone, conquered Etheria, lost Etheria, lost all sense of purpose and the will to live, and now has to live with all that. Hordak had no parents, no name, no place to belong, no self-esteem, was raised exclusively for war by an abusive narcissist with a god complex, and then spent the last few decades in near-constant physical and emotional pain while trying to conquer an entire planet with an army he scrounged together after being thrown into an alternate dimension. I’ll bet Horde Prime got abused by someone else, who was hurt by someone else!” She had to take a deep breath after this before she concluded. “My point is, we could keep going for hours, arguing about who has the right to feel the sorriest for themselves and who is the most to blame for this mess. All of us feel real, valid pain, and the right reaction to that is to be kind to one another. Now, stop screaming!”

“I’m sorry,” said Entrapta, her hair drooping. “I’ve never said all those things to anyone before, and I guess I just let them all out at once! So what you’re saying, Scorpia, is that people who get hurt, will often hurt other people because they feel like they need to defend themselves, and the only way to stop that is by deliberately choosing kindness?”  
Scorpia nodded. “Catra said she wanted to hurt Adora, but what she really wanted was her love and respect. She needed to know that she was loved and important, that she had a place somewhere and she mattered.”  
“Don’t we all?” said Glimmer. “We all feel this terrible need to be loved for who we are.”

  
“That’s right!” Entrapta answered. “When I first met Hordak, he was so...focussed. So intent on building that portal and getting through to his brother. That day when I saw him without his armour, he told me that he thought he was a failure and a worthless reject. He was more afraid of someone not approving of him than he was of anything else. I looked into his eyes and I saw myself. I also saw someone persistent, and intelligent and...brave. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be abandoned like garbage, and drag yourself out of that state.”  
She frowned. “I just had to help him. He looked so sad, and lost, and alone. So! I built him a suit and I made him as strong on the outside as he was on the inside! That felt good, but I still thought the same as you do: that he liked me because of what I could do for him. But then we finished the portal and I saw that he didn’t really want to go. He wanted to stay here, and build stuff with me, forever. He really liked me for who I was and didn’t feel like he needed to please Horde Prime anymore. I guess what he really wanted was love.”

“Love or not,” snorted Glimmer, “he still did a lot of terrible things. Come on, he was trying to conquer Etheria! He tried to hit me over the head with a giant piece of metal! He brainwashed Adora and Scorpia and all of the other Horde soldiers into fighting against us.”  
“Oh yeah...” said Entrapta, thoughtfully, “I should really talk to him about maybe apologising to you for the thing with the metal. Catra had just dropped a giant thing on him, so I don’t think he was thinking too clearly....but still....”  
Scorpia waved her claws frantically. “Both things can be true!” she stated, emphatically. “Hordak did terrible things because, like us, he ultimately wants to be loved. Like us, he can also change!”

“Change? Huh! I’ll believe it when I see it.” retorted Glimmer. “But....oh...” and her eyes went very wide. “He already did. Even before he was taken by Horde Prime.....when he found out about how Catra sent you to Beast Island. When he lost Adora, his Force Captain, he didn’t really care. But you....he really liked you, and I only thought of that affection as a weapon to use against him. He destroyed an entire section of the Fright Zone, Entrapta! Did he.... tell you that?”  
“No, he’s not exactly a big talker when it comes to personal, emotional stuff,” said Entrapta.  
“Okay, okay. Wow.” exhaled Glimmer. “So, uh, I may have hired Double Trouble to tell him about Catra sending you to Beast Island.....and he was so angry that he tried to kill her and...wrecked a whole bunch of stuff in the process.”  
“Oh no!” gasped Entrapta. “I hope he didn’t destroy too much of our research....”  
Glimmer and Scorpia exchanged glances, then burst out laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Entrapta's my favourite princess. I dreamt I met her and Hordak once, coordinating research in a lab at the university I studied at, and I've never forgotten it. Entrapta was brilliant and bright, and kind. Hordak was quiet, contented and focussed. Yes, he may have been eight feet tall with razor-sharp red teeth, but meeting him felt exactly like meeting a real person who had found his place and his calling. When I was talking with Entrapta, I got this distinctive impression of an intimidatingly sharp mind, of someone who was so full of energy and excitement, who had stopped their day to talk to me about some niche interest in animal biology that we both shared.  
> Canonically, she's supposed to be autistic. The representation is cool, but Crew-Ra wrote her like a child and the princesses treated her like garbage and never got called out for it. I have friends and family members who are autistic, so seeing Entrapta get silenced, ignored, and disrespected absolutely enraged me.  
> Ps, I don't hate Glimmer. She's got issues, she's a bit mouthy, but she's working through it. I did really hate the childish, bratty way she acted during some parts of the show, but I've come to love her. I don't think it's unreasonable for her to have some issues trusting Hordak. She's a child of war, and she's probably having difficulty registering the fact that the war really IS over. Eventually, she'll put two and two together to make five and realise a few things about Hordak (my problematic fave), but for now, it's pretty fair that she's still grieving and freaked out and a wee bit paranoid. She's a bitch about it though, which isn't cool. I kinda admire her for voicing some of the stuff everyone's thinking but nobody's bold/ tactless enough to say. She's the figurehead of the Alliance, so that's why Entrapta is having this showdown with her about their behavior.


	9. Beast Island and Beyond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Squad drop Hordak and Entrapta off on Beast Island. When they return to collect them, they've made a new friend...

They took off for Beast Island later that morning. Adora watched Swiftwind swooping and diving above the camp until he faded to a distant speck. She’d asked him to remain behind to help Scorpia round up the clones. They made a great team, and his aerial surveillance skills would be invaluable for keeping an eye on all 1700-odd clones on the march. As disciplined as they were when it came to things like moving long distances in formation, it did help to have a little guidance for them.

She turned to Glimmer, who had her nose pressed against the glass beside her. “What do you think?” she said softly, gesturing to the lush landscape below them. Glimmer smiled, exhausted but rapturous. Bow hugged her and they gazed in silence at the beauty below them.

Since She-Ra had unleashed the magic stored in the Heart, Etheria had regenerated rapidly and the forests spread out in all directions. Luxuriantly feathered birds flew in glittering flocks, while beneath them an enormous six-eyed staglike creature raised its head above the canopy, its antlers draped with glowing moss. Here and there, the wreckage of war was still visible: bits of Horde bots glinting as they passed over, enormous overturned tanks impaled by trees that had thrust their way up and through them, Prime’s spires sticking out of the landscape like colossal jagged teeth, lopsided and already covered in vines as Etheria reclaimed them.

As they flew, they were significantly encouraged to see many a ruined village filled with little coloured, moving dots: people, scrambling through the rubble, and busily rebuilding. Bow recorded the position of each community and the damage they could see from the air. In the coming weeks, they would visit them all to greet the survivors and make sure they had the supplies they needed.

  
Glimmer groaned inwardly as she remembered another task they had to undertake: rounding up and rehoming all of the other clones on Etheria. They could hardly be left to fend for themselves; they were far too strong and easily influenced, and Glimmer hated to think how many of them had died needlessly already. She turned to Bow, still tapping away on his compad.  
“What’s the latest clone count?” she asked.  
“According to my latest report.....29,285 and counting,” he replied.  
Glimmer swallowed her dismay. The reports of stranded clones across Etheria had come in a steady trickle, but she'd never thought the numbers would add up to so many.  
“What’s the current number of civilian fatalities?”  
“56,000 is the current best estimate,” said Bow, softly.  
Glimmer closed her eyes and bit her lip. “Clone fatalities?”  
“12,768.” Nearly 13,000 clones had been created for war and died serving someone who had never cared for them or the countless people they killed.  
Glimmer and Bow both sighed, and stared hard at the floor. War sucked.

***

A few hours later, Entrapta loudly announced that Beast Island was now in their sights. As they began their descent, all of them noticed in the same instance that something was wrong with the mysterious island....or rather, something was right!

“I thought Beast Island was a toxic wasteland?” Glimmer said, staring at the island.  
“Darla, take us down to 100 metres and circle the island 3 times, slowly. Shields up. Look out for anything...suspicious.” Entrapta said to the ship, patting the console with an affectionate “That’s my girl!” when Darla replied with the affirmative.

The island spun slowly beneath them as Darla responded, and all aboard gaped out the window at the mysterious sight. The island had changed dramatically since they last saw it. Its jagged peaks were now covered in thick vegetation. Birds dove and spiralled in the air around them, and.....were those butterflies? On Beast Island? True, the birds had more than the usual number of wings and toothed beaks, and the butterflies were gigantic, but they flew about the ship peacefully enough. The birds were even singing to one another, calling in deep, melodious voices.  
“Was this She-Ra’s doing?” Hordak asked Adora, breaking the awestruck silence.  
“Uhhhh...I guess maybe when I healed Etheria, I healed this island too? Maybe? I don’t know how planetary healing works!” Adora said, glancing down at her bracelet.

“Well, whatever happened, it’s a good thing, right?” Catra said, twitching her tail impatiently. Melog had come with them too, in case they had need of his magical abilities, and Catra petted him absentmindedly and tried to stop her fur fluffing up. Out of the corner of one eye, she could see the tension in Hordak’s shoulders as he stood protectively near Entrapta.  
“Okay, okay, Hordak and Entrapta I know what you’re thinking!” she blurted, suddenly. “I’m sorry! For sending Entrapta to this place, and I hate being here too and I hate thinking about what I did!”  
Hordak’s shoulders sagged and he turned to look at her, Entrapta’s hand in his.  
“It’s ok, Catra,” said Entrapta. “Well, it’s not actually, technically okay, since you did try to kill me once and I will keep that in mind for my own safety.....but you know what I mean! I said I forgave you, and I meant it. I haven’t forgotten what you did, but I don’t hold grudges.”

She patted Catra’s ears gently with her hair, and Hordak even smiled a little.  
“I....apologise for the time I tried to kill you also, Catra. And the time I tried to kill Glimmer....and Adora, and all citizens of Etheria with the exception of Entrapra. I am truly remorseful.” He paused and stared at the floor. He’d heard Entrapta’s shouting match with Glimmer – it had been hard to ignore – and had been thinking about it for hours.  
“How did this come to pass?” he continued, bewildered. “It was not intended to be personal...I just wanted to conquer Etheria and regain Prime’s favour. My goal was clear, my purpose precise! Then I made the fatal error of developing attachments to my...rescuers in the Scorpion Kingdom. How did this all become so convoluted? I have so many emotions now and I do not like any of them.”  
“You came here to have a victorious time and now you’re feeling so attacked by your own conflicting emotions?” Bow questioned. Hordak nodded, miserably.

Glimmer gawked at him and his downturned ears, which were being petted by a sympathetic Entrapta. “I could kinda deal with the whole angsty tyrannical overlord thing, but this is somehow worse. Please get this emotional wreck off the ship so we can leave already?” she huffed.  
“Agreed. With all of you,” said Catra, her pupils dilated enormously and her fur bristling. “I hate feelings, and apologies, and public displays of emotion, so please...let’s go.”  
“Darla, take us down. Keep the shields up!” said Entrapta, still patting Hordak distractedly with one ponytail.

***

They landed, somewhat cautiously, on the south-western side of the island.  
After five minutes of silent, anxious waiting, nothing had attacked them, so Darla turned her shields off and let them disembark. Entrapta bade her reluctant farewells to her beloved ship, then turned and was immediately distracted by one of the enormous butterflies. Melog joined her in marveling at its fluttering, iridescent blue wings.  
“Hordak, can you fetch my notebook? I wanna record everything about this fascinating creature! Such rapid biological change in response to magical stimuli is truly amazing!” she called to Hordak, who was currently dragging an inordinate amount of equipment out of the belly of the ship. Adora transformed into She-Ra, and between the two of them, they unloaded in a matter of minutes, tossing gigantic pieces of machinery and heavy boxes between them with frightening ease.  
“Well, I suppose that answers the question of who’s going to carry all of Entrapta’s equipment,” said Glimmer, watching Hordak move something almost as big as himself.

“Oh, I’ve got transport sorted already!” said Entrapta, confidently. She whistled loudly, and with a resounding clatter, an enormous robot came charging through the trees.  
“Emily, meet your big sister!” Entrapta yelled, gesturing proudly at the bot looming above them. Emily beeped and whirred a little hesitantly, then stepped cautiously forward from behind Entrapta.  
The bigger bot crouched and nosed at the smaller one. Satisfied, Emily whistled cheerfully and her big sister bugled back.  
“This is EBS! Emily’s Big Sister! She’s going to help us explore, and oh my goodness, we are going to collect so much dataaaaa....” Entrapta stared rapturously off into space, her eyes almost glowing with uncontrollable glee. Meanwhile, Hordak and She-Ra had unloaded the last box.

  
EBS looked at the pile of equipment contemplatively, opened her jaws, and promptly swallowed the whole lot.  
“Where....did all that stuff go? There’s no way all of that can fit in that robot...” Adora gasped.  
Catra clapped her hand firmly over her mouth. “Don’t ask Entrapta about it; she’ll never stop talking about pocket dimension theory. These two weirdos are safe enough here. Let’s. Go. Already.” she growled insistently.  
“Aw, you remembered about pocket dimensions! You really do care.” cooed Entrapta.  
Catra rolled her eyes. “Okay. Fine. I do care, sometimes, about some people....I’m just very bad at expressing it.”

“I can relate.” nodded Hordak, who was standing with Bow while he demonstrated the use of some kind of tracking device.  
“Ok, the tracker is online and we are go! Press that button once each day at sunset to let us know you’re still okay. Press twice if you want us to call you. Press it three times and hold on the third push if you’re in danger and need our help immediately.” Bow explained, anxiously.  
“Ooooh, a piece of technology that ensures our health and safety? What an incredible idea! Bow, you are such a wonderful friend!” Entrapta enthused.  
Bow glowed with pride, and Glimmer sighed. “We’ll be back in exactly one week at this location to pick you up. Have fun, I guess, and don’t die.”  
“Oh, don’t you worry, it’s perfectly safe and we are gonna have the best time!” Entrapta waved down at them from the jaws of EBS as she helped Hordak and Emily up with her hair.

“You know, we’re all freaked out by Hordak’s suit thing, but nobody ever seems to talk about how Entrapta can just pick up entire people with her hair.” mused Adora as they departed.

***

They returned to the arranged meeting spot exactly one week later, just as they had promised.  
Despite the daily, reassuring signal from the tracker and the beep sent at precisely sundown each day, Bow was racked with fear that somehow they wouldn’t show up. He’d been fretting all morning, to Glimmer’s continued annoyance and Catra’s amusement. “Your nerdy friends will be just fine,” she said, with a dismissive flick of her ears. “After all, I did try to kill both of them and didn’t succeed at either attempt, so if they can survive me, they can survive a week on Beast Island.”

Bow let out his breath with a relieved sigh when he saw Emily scurry out of the forest as they landed. She beeped happily at them and rolled around the clearing in greeting. Entrapta came bounding behind her, followed by Hordak, and finally the lumbering bulk of EBS.  
“Hi, princesses! It’s so good to see you, and we found SO MUCH First One’s Tech!” Entrapta babbled, gesturing proudly to Hordak’s armful of glinting crystals. “That’s just a sample.” she giggled.  
“Well, that’s great! Let’s get going!” smiled Glimmer as EBS climbed the ramp and squeezed aboard the ship with a little difficulty.

The was a sudden, ominous crash in the forest, and then another. Entrapta paused her elated conversation with Bow and looked up with something like mild guilt. “Oh, wait, we...we made a friend and she wants to come too!” she mumbled.  
“That’s fine,” said Adora cheerfully. “As long as the ship isn’t too small for....” the trees parted and a monstrous white head loomed out of it “your friend.” she finished as two dinner-plate-sized glowing blue eyes blinked down at her.  
“Greetings, friendbeast!” said Hordak, reaching up to pat the scaled muzzle of the creature. She purred affectionately and rubbed her horned head against a nearby tree, nearly toppling it.  
“How....how is that thing going to come with us?” sputtered Catra, hiding behind Melog.  
“Oh that’s not a problem!” said Entrapta gesturing to the beast enthusiastically as she unfolded into something even larger. “She has wings!”

***

They flew back to Brightmoon accompanied by the steady swoosh-swoosh of the dragon’s pearlescent wings as she flapped lazily beside them.  
“She looks like....that thing we saw trapped in the vines when we found Micah and stopped to rest,” said Adora to Bow.  
“I thought that creature was dead!” replied Bow, perplexed.  
“Not dead, exactly....” explained Entrapta, “just....severely degraded. She must have been just alive enough for She-Ra’s magic to repair her.  
“She still bears the scars of her afflictions,” said Hordak, indicating a series of faint, darkened scars zig-zagging their way across the dragon’s shimmering body.  
“Seems like all of us do, in one way or another,” said Catra, thinking remorsefully of the scratch marks on Adora’s back.

***

As they landed at Brightmoon, King Micah strode out to meet them accompanied by four of the Brightmoon Guard.  
“Glimmer!” he exclaimed. “I’m so glad to see you, my baby girl,” he hugged her tightly, “but what is the meaning of....this?” he pointed to the dragon, who was currently taking up all of the remaining lawn that the ship didn’t occupy.

Hordak stepped forward, and despite his height, he still looked small and ashamed before Micah’s disapproving scowl.  
“King Micah, if you will permit me to speak, I will explain the presence of this creature on your premises,” he said, eyes averted.  
“I do permit you to speak,” replied Micah.

  
“Years ago, I banished you to Beast Island to perish and afflicted your people with a war that lasted decades. I have begun to comprehend some of the damage that this caused to Etheria, and also to individual citizens such as yourself. Some of the worst crimes I committed were personal. I understand little of familial relationships, but I know enough to know that your absence caused your family great pain. I robbed them of someone they loved, and believe it or not, “he paused to look at Entrapta, “I now know how terrible that feels.”

  
Micah nodded, and Hordak continued.  
“To indicate my regret for my actions, I wish to offer you a gift. This creature,” he indicated the dragon, “expressed her desire to leave Beast Island. Her experiences with corrupted technology left her...disinclined to inhabit Dryl.”  
“Yeah, it took us three days to convince her to trust Emily, and she only flew next to us in a First One's ship because we were inside the ship!” said Entrapta. Even now, the dragon was eyeing the bots very suspiciously with her tail curled tightly around her body.

“I told her that there was another being who had also successfully left the island and re-adjusted to life outside of it.” continued Hordak. “She wanted to meet you, and I thought that I would extend her offer of friendship and companionship on her behalf. She, too, has terrible memories of Beast Island, and I thought that you could help one another. Entrapta told me that friendship is the greatest gift anyone can give and that sometimes it is even superior to technology, so....” Hordak trailed off awkwardly and stared at the ground.

“That is the weirdest apology I have ever heard,” said Micah “and also THE ABSOLUTE BEST!” He embraced the dragon’s foreleg, and she rumbled happily back at him. Hordak sighed in relief.  
“I LOVE DRAGONS!” Micah exclaimed, happily. “I’m gonna name you...Opallie. ‘Cause you’re my O-pal, now! My pal? Geddit?” he grinned, as everyone, especially his daughter, groaned.

Entrapta chuckled. “Great joke. I gotta remember that one. I should probably tell you that although Opallie can’t speak...well....not exactly....she does understand nearly everything you say!”  
“What do you mean, she “can’t exactly speak?” queried Micah, gazing up at his new friend.  
“Opallie, what’s my name?” said Entrapta to the dragon.  
“Trap-tuh!” she boomed.  
“Good girl!” beamed Entrapta. “And his name?” she pointed to Hordak.  
“Ror-dagh!” came the answer.

  
Micah raised his eyebrows, impressed. “That’s amazing. I suppose I’ll have to learn her way of speaking.”  
Opallie lowered her head and contemplated Micah’s face. “My-ruh?” she tried, experimentally.  
“Yes, I think that will do just fine. Welcome to Brightmoon, Opallie!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise that Beast Island is more of a gigantic pile of First Ones tech than a regular part of Etheria, but I figure that if She-Ra IS a First One, she can probably do something about the malfunctioning tech and "heal" Beast Island. It's still a bit funky, but survivable. I may write a separate fic about Hordak and Entrapta's adventures there, but to keep the flow of the story going I chose to leave that bit out.  
> Opallie was a fairly spontaneous character idea I had. I love, and I mean absolutely LOVE, dragons. So, you can bet your boots I found a way to include one in the story, and even better! She's vaguely canonical! I thought the creature design of the thing Micah lead the Beast Island Rescue Team past was neat, so I decided to "resurrect" it a bit. Opallie also gave Hordak the chance to apologise to Micah in a way that was odd, personal, and strangely appropriate, which I feel is well-suited to his character. Anyway, I'll include her here and there in future chapters, and I genuinely think that Micah would LOVE her.


	10. The Sentence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hordak, Catra, and Entrapta finally receive their sentences for various crimes against Etheria. 
> 
> I wrote this when I was sad aaaaaah

Hordak waited nervously outside the former War Room - now renamed the Friendship Room - his ears flicking back and forth as he strained to catch bits of the heated conversation happening inside.  
Entrapta squeezed his hand. "Don't worry Hordak, I've got a plan!" she whispered.  
"A plan for our final speeches when they inevitably sentence us to death?"  
"Magical princesses can't do death sentences according to the law of TVY7-FV. And I was talking about my plan for overhearing what they're saying!" Reaching into one of her deep pockets, she pulled out a tiny circular disk with a little speaker which she stuck to the door. "It picks up the vibrations from their voices and amplifies them so we can hear them!" she explained.  
Hordak smiled and pulled her close against his chest as the two of them put their ears to the door and listened with the fervency of the truly desperate.

"-I'm saying is that they should face SOME consequences for their actions!" That was Mermista, sounding fairly pissed off. Hordak, as much as he feared such "consequences", couldn't help but agree. They had killed people.  
"I agree, but what's the point if our only objective is getting back at them?" Adora countered. Interesting. Evidently she felt more sympathy for them than she was letting on.  
"Justice should be restorative. Ideally we want them to learn something, and become better people." added Micah.  
"True. There's no point putting them in prison to rot forever. It won't change the past and it won't help them, or us. Maybe a shorter sentence with some community service would be better?" Glimmer proposed.

"Ok. Everyone shut up for a second." Catra interjected, abruptly. They heard the scrape of her chair being pushed back. Evidently, she had something significant enough to say that she was standing up. She exhaled, loudly, in the sudden silence.  
"I'm not comfortable with being on this side of the door if they're out there." Hordak and Entrapta exchanged astonished glances. Surely she wasn't suggesting-  
"I'm just as guilty as they are."  
"But you-!"  
"Suffered abuse in the Horde? Yes. I did. But that doesn't mean I can't take some responsibility for the bad choices I made. Believe me, I'm tough enough, and it's about time I did."  
Dead silence.

  
"Oh come on! I know the real reason they're out there and I'm in here is that I'm Adora's girlfriend; we're one "big, happy family" now and you're too scared to call me out in case the spell breaks and I stop behaving myself!"  
More silence.  
"Yep. Thought so. That's some serious bullshit, and it's actually insulting that you think I can't act like a grownup when I want to!" The chair scraped back further.  
"Catra!" Adora implored, probably grabbing hold of her arm.  
"No, Adora. Stop it. Stop trying to step in and save the day and fix everything. I don't need you to protect me from my problems. I can do this myself. I need to do this myself."

  
Footsteps, approaching rapidly. The door creaks open. Hordak and Entrapta jump back, trying very hard to pretend they hadn't overheard anything.  
Catra spots the device on the door immediately and snorts in amusement. "Move over, Hordak. Entrapta can stand in the middle nearest that spy robot thing and we'll stand on each side because we've got the biggest ears. That way, we can all hear."  
Hordak nods his silent agreement and steps aside.

***

Back inside, Micah had managed to break the awkward silence Catra had left in her wake.  
"Catra is right, and it's very responsible of her to say what she just did. Justice shouldn't be selectively applied to some people and ignored when it comes to our "favorites". However, let me reiterate the point I made before: Justice should be restorative. Sentencing our friends - and they are our friends now, all three of them, and anyone who disagrees can fight me - doesn't have to be a bad thing. All we're doing is trying to find a way to make right what they did wrong, and involving them in that process in a way that's positive for everyone."

Hordak's hearts nearly stopped. This was madness. He wasn't worthy of this. The rest of the conversation passed him in a blur of noise as he fought his conflicting emotions.  
Catra and Entrapta saw his distress, exchanged glances, and put their hands in his. His spine stiffened in surprise, but he didn't resist. Their hands were so small, he marveled. Even Catra's clawed fingers could have been crushed in one of his enormous fists, and yet, here they all were. Hand in hand, silently agreeing to face whatever fate awaited them together.

***

Minutes later, the door swung open and Glimmer peered out, cautiously.  
"Hey...uh...do you wanna come in now?" she asked.  
"Alright then. Is this a public execution, or a private one? Axe or noose? " Catra joked. Her humour went down like a lead balloon, but she still thought it was funny.

  
Everyone was smiling a little as they walked in, which put Hordak even more on edge. Was this a trap? Some kind of cruel joke? He could still remember the faint, oddly satisfied smile that had crossed Prime's lips as he was dragged, weeping and pleading for mercy, from Prime's throne room after his defect had been discovered. He would have done anything to keep Prime's favour, in those days, and he had. He had done everything. His only consolation was the memory of taking his brother by the throat....and Entrapta's hand in his. She'd draped her hair around his shoulders, too; it looked perhaps a little undignified but right now he couldn't care less. She knew that the weight and the pressure comforted him.

Having Catra at his side was strangely reassuring. An unfamiliar feeling - was it pride? - swelled his chest as he watched her walk with her head held high and her shoulders back, trying to hide the fear in her eyes. She had always been brave, but today was the bravest she'd ever been. She was facing everyone's worst fear: dealing with the consequences of her own actions.

Micah cleared his throat and met Hordak's eyes as they reached his side of the table. Opallie was peering down at them, through the special dragon-sized window that had been made for her since she couldn't fit her enormous body inside the castle. Below her, all the members of the Princess Alliance were present, alert and silent. Even Swiftwind looked unusually serious.

"Hordak, Entrapta and Catra," Micah began, "As the longest-serving member of the Alliance I will be directing your trial today. I would like to begin with a question: what do you each feel that you are guilty of?"  
An interesting question, but a good one.

  
Entrapta spoke up first, her voice soft but resolute. "I built robots that hurt people. Even though I believed that the Princesses abandoned me in the Fright Zone, it was still wrong to place them in danger. I helped Hordak design a portal that nearly destroyed Etheria."  
"Thank you, Entrapta. We hear you, and we respect you." answered Micah.

  
"I knew that what the Horde was doing was wrong, the entire time, and did it anyway." Catra said. "I was willing to kill Entrapta to stop her warning Hordak about what might happen. I lied to him and manipulated him into believing that his only friend had betrayed him because I was jealous of the relationship that they had." She glanced up at Hordak, but to her surprise, there was no anger in his eyes. Entrapta patted her gently on the shoulder. 

"Adora. I blamed...everything on you." Catra murmured. "I was so angry that Shadow Weaver loved you and hated me, but that wasn't your fault. I was angry that you always seemed to come to my rescue and bail me out. I felt like I never had the chance to prove myself, so I guess in the end, I lost it Adora. I just couldn't take feeling like I was second best all the time, and I completely lost it and I went absolutely feral. I wanted all of Etheria to know that I didn't need you and I didn't need Hordak and I didn't need ANYONE-" she was breathing hard now, fighting to keep herself from crying, "And I especially didn't need Shadow Weaver! Do you know what it's like to feel like you're dying, dying for someone's love and approval, and no matter what you do, you're just never good enough?"

"I do, Catra." Hordak said, quietly. 

Catra met his gaze, and there was something fierce and wild in her mismatched eyes. 

"Hordak, you're the only person on this damn planet that I could really hear that from, and still respect you. We would have taken the whole world apart to prove our worth."

"That is true, and that truth is terrible," he answered, his voice a cracked whisper. "We bathed this planet in blood to fill the cracks in our broken hearts. But I started this, Catra. You finished it, but I began this stupid bloody war." He swallowed hard. "So I am prepared to face the full punishment for what I have done. I know that I deserve nothing less than death in return for the lives I have taken," he finished, quietly.

"Death?" Micah chuckled. "What would that solve? We could kill all three of you and it still wouldn't bring back a single person or repair any cities. The only thing it would do is add you to the list of what this war has devoured. No, Hordak. Your sentence for your crimes won't end your life, or even add another burden to it, I hope. You're going to help us heal Etheria, all three of you."

Hordak's jaw nearly hit the floor. 

"So....what exactly is our sentence?" Entrapta quizzed, warily.

Micah exchanged glances with his daughter. “In light of recent events, we decided that Hordak’s sentence shall be....a year of home detention in the Kingdom of Dryl! You'll be researching how to use the materials we have available to rebuild Etheria. After all, you're the only one on this planet who knows how to build housing out of wrecked spaceships!”

“HOORAY!” yelled Entrapta. “We’ll make you your own little house near Dryl and everything, and you can help me with my research, too! This is gonna be so much fun!” Hordak smiled and blushed a little, despite himself. He couldn't believe this was happening.

“Seriously though, Hordak, don’t even think about trying anything villainous. You put one foot wrong and I won’t hesitate to take you out! I’ll get you, and I’ll make it look like a bloody accident!” Glimmer threatened. Hordak nodded, and she turned her attention to the brilliant woman at his left elbow.

“Entrapta, for crimes against the Princess Alliance, you’re banned from making weapons of any sort, and I “royally order you” to collect all the data you can from Prime’s clones and report anything of interest to me.” Glimmer giggled. Entrapta grinned madly.

“Catra...” Adora began, gasping with laughter, “Catra we-” Bow joined in with her sniggering.

“Catra, you may not leave Brightmoon unsupervised for the next year, and we sentence you to serving as a member of the Best Friend Squad FOR LIFE!” They yelled, in unison with Glimmer.

“Great. As if being stuck with you for the last few months wasn’t sentence enough.” replied Catra, rolling her eyes. She was smiling, though, and under the table Adora squeezed her hand. “Promise me you’ll get counselling, too?” Adora whispered.

“Fiiiine.” said Catra, flicking her ears back moodily and slouching.

***

The firelight cast a warm glow over them all, hours later, as they reclined in one of Brightmoon's many lounges.

Entrapta had fallen asleep in a pile of Brightmoon clones, with her head on Hordak's chest and Hermann at her side. They had built a gigantic nest of pillows around them, and Catra and Adora watched them with some amusement from inside their own pillow fort nearby. 

"I guess even brainwashed clones need to be loved!" Adora remarked, quietly. 

"We all do," Catra nodded.

Adora saw the sad, aching look in her eyes, and bit her lip.

"Catra, I have something to say. I need to apologise to you, too."

Catra pricked up her ears in mild surprise and twitched her tail, but said nothing. 

"When I left the Horde," Adora began, a little shakily, "I left because I saw what was happening to the people of Etheria and I thought I had the power to change it...and you said, you said it didn't matter what Hordak and Shadow Weaver were doing, cause the two of us looked out for each other, and soon we'd be the ones calling the shots."

"Yeah, I thought that when we called the shots maybe we'd have the power to stop the whole war or something. But, in the end I turned out to be a worse tyrant than Hordak, just cause I was so pissed off at you," Catra replied, remorsefully.

"Hah! Yeah, at the time I thought you were being pretty awful and your motives sucked-"

"Gee thanks!"

"Hang on, let me finish! I'm trying to apologise, and I'm making a pretty big mess of it but I'll get to the point soon, I promise."

"Ok, ok, I'm all ears. Literally. You guys will not shut up about how big and "cute" my ears are."

"Yeah they are! So, what was I saying...Oh! I thought your motives sucked, and you were just being petty not leaving the Horde-"

"I can't deny that."

"But you're not the one apologising this time. Stop it. When I looked back at my own motives, I realised that I made a pretty big mistake. That day, in Thaymore, I saw what the Horde was doing and I took immediate, drastic action that changed the entire course of my life. But all those years in the Horde, I saw what Shadow Weaver was doing to you, and I never did anything really drastic to save you. I should have taken you and the rest of our squadron, and run away. I risked my life and everything I'd ever achieved for some randos I met and thought I was a hero for doing that, but I didn't do the same for my childhood friends."

"Yep. It felt like sh*t, seeing you use the power you had to defend others that you barely knew. But not me. Not me, or Kyle, or Lonnie, or Rogelio."

"I didn't keep the promise I made to you. I didn't have your back, not really. And I'm sorry, Catra. I'm so sorry."

"Apology accepted."

"Wow, really?!"

"Yep. I've already tried the whole rage-denial-bargaining thing. Already fought you, screamed, tried to kill you. Been there, been feral and I'm done with it. I've been thinking a lot lately, and at this stage, there isn't much left for me to do other than accept your apology. Come on, I've already exhausted all of the worst alternatives! For once in my life, I have no choice but to pick the emotionally mature response, and what's more, I want to pick it."

"Heck, Catra. I'm so proud of you."

"I know, and I'm proud of me too. I've been processing my emotions -ew- and I figure that if Shadow Weaver was abusing me and getting in my head, she was probably doing it to you too, in a different way. She made you think you were special cause she saw that you were powerful, and we both know how much of a power-hungry parasite she was. She fed your hero complex until it overwhelmed you. Both of us desperately wanted her love, but only you got it. I think that in some way, you were afraid to lose her approval until you had a magic sword in your hands and a place to escape to where you thought you'd never have to confront her."

"I was a coward, Catra. I should have taken that sword, and got in that tank with you, and gone back and killed Shadow Weaver. I should have taken everyone I could and fled the Horde with all of you, even if I had to tase you. But even though I thought I was brave enough to defend Thaymore, I still wasn't brave enough to go back and look Shadow Weaver in the eye and know that she was disappointed in me. I never could bring myself to let her down, not even to defend you the way I should have. I went too far when it came to impressing her. Way too far. I wanted her praise so badly even when I KNEW she was a terrible, abusive, manipulative person."

"Well, I guess I learned to defend myself, then. And I went too far, too. I was willing to end an entire planet because you wouldn't love me the way I wanted you to." 

Adora put one arm around Catra's shoulders. Neither of them said anything after that.

Across the room Hordak twitched in his sleep, dreaming of begging for Horde Prime's favour.

***

_"I went too far when I was begging on my knees_   
_Begging for your arms, for you to hold around me_   
_I went too far and kissed the ground beneath your feet_   
_Waiting for your love, waiting for our eyes to meet_   
  
_Crying; give me some love, give me some love and hold me_   
_Give me some love and hold me tight_   
_Oh, give me some love, give me some love and hold me_   
_Give me some love and hold me tight._   
  
_I went too far when I was begging on my knees_   
_When I cut my hands, so you could stand and watch me bleed_   
_I went too far and kissed the ground beneath your feet_   
_Standing in my blood, it was a taste of bittersweet_   
  
_Why can't I turn around and walk away?_   
_Go back in time_   
_I'll have to turn around and walk away_   
_I couldn't stay, I had to walk away_   
  
_I'm left behind with an empty hole_   
_And everything I am is gone_   
_I try to reach for another soul_   
_So I can feel whole."_

Aurora Aksnes. (2020). _I Went Too Far._ (Song). On _All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend._ AURORA.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up re-writing this entire chapter in the middle of the night because I wasn't happy with the first draft and, then updating it the next day with some major angst.
> 
> Hordak, Entrapta, and Catra have all done bad things, but I believe it's a complete waste of time arguing about who did the worst and who deserves what. I have some pretty strong beliefs about justice, and I thought that Micah would have the emotional maturity to realise that the best thing to do with "war criminals" is to put them somewhere safe where they can form healthy relationships and be supported, given meaningful tasks to do, and allowed the opportunity to come to terms with what they've done and apologise. The other members of the Princess Alliance might take some time to come round to this way of thinking. That's ok. Everyone has a lot of emotional processing to do.
> 
> There's no way Hordak, Entrapta and Catra can ever make full amends for what they did, and I don't think that's what justice is actually about. All three of them have suffered, in different ways: Entrapta, from her loneliness and the discrimination she faces, Catra, from systemic, vicious emotional and physical abuse, and Hordak, from indoctrination, brainwashing, rejection, physical abuse, etc, etc, etc. Punishing them is actually going to do jack sh*t aside from inflicting further trauma, and from an ethical and emotional perspective, is quite messed-up. Giving them space, support, and opportunity to become better people is what will actually help. I'm proud of all three of them. 
> 
> I added the scene at the end with Catra and Adora because...I dunno. It needed to happen. I hated Catra, really hated her for the first four seasons 'cause I didn't understand why she was so utterly feral. Eventually, I figured out she was being used as a plot device and conflict generator......which is a bit lame.... and when I looked at my own heart and my own experiences I suddenly understood why she could be so angry. I think I hated her because I saw her pain buried deep within myself, and I was terrified of it. Oof, that got deep real fast. But yeah, in case anyone wanted to know, there's definitely some very real emotion going into this fanfic! I'm absolutely loving writing this. 
> 
> PS; the "law of TVY7-FV" is a joke about how the audience rating of She-Ra doesn't allow the princesses to do anything particularly gory onscreen. Even Horde Prime physically "dies" offscreen, and his actual, soul-death is pretty abstract. Cracks me up. Crew-ra probably wanted to have Hordak decapitate him or blow him up or something, but you can't show that kind of thing to the kiddies. The death we got was very satisfying, though. I rewatched Hordak hurling him off the ships' bridge three times! Man, Horde Prime sucked. He was somehow even worse than Shadow Weaver.
> 
> PPS the song quoted at the end is a particularly angsty one that I listen to on repeat when I'm trying to write about Hordak and Catra's personalities. Yes, I did APA reference it because I'm a Big Nerd.


	11. A Crowning Achievement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hordak attends Scorpia's coronation, and unexpectedly meets an old friend.

The wind howled through the mountains of Dryl, hurling sheets of icy rain against the castle. Hordak flicked one ear at the rumble of thunder, but continued his work on a construction bot, unbothered.  
Entrapta had just returned from another round of data collection on Prime’s ship. She was busily recording her observations at a desk across the room, accompanied by Bow’s dads, George and Lance, who were there on one of their weekly visits. They had taken great interest in Entrapta’s data cataloguing project, and were well-prepared to sort and file the inordinate amounts of historical data recorded in Prime’s memories. Hordak liked them, really and truly. They respected Entrapta as a fellow seeker of knowledge, and could often be found enthusing over some minor detail of First One’s technology with her. It had taken them a little longer to get used to Hordak, but these days they were quite relaxed in his presence. They had discovered, to their surprise, that he was rather quiet. He was content to be left to his own devices to tinker, as opposed to being the ferocious warlord they thought they knew. Hordak could have sworn he heard Lance whisper to George, the second time they had come, “He’s really just a big nerd!” to which George replied, “Yeah, a really big, scary nerd with very sharp teeth.”

Hordak smiled a little at the memory. He could hear several of his brothers in a room nearby, laughing as they dusted and swept. They seemed quite happy to have something to do, since they still didn’t know how to use all the freedom suddenly granted to them, and Entrapta had no objection to them keeping themselves busy tidying her enormous castle. She’d given each of them a compad and a tracker beacon, of course, so that they didn’t get lost. Over the few days it took them to journey to Dryl, they had picked up a few dozen lost clones along the way, and another twenty-six stuck in various traps around the castle. They came in very handy during the weeks it took to clear out and reorganise the castle after its occupation. Clones were meticulously tidy, but they had completely dismantled what remained of Entrapta’s laboratory setup to use for their own devices. A flock of giant mountain-moths had moved into the library, and there was still a small and irritating Eldritch horror of some kind clattering around in the roof on an unnerving number of legs.  
Hordak sighed heavily as he listened to it chittering to itself in some kind of backward language. He’d get round to dealing with it eventually. Minor Eldritch horrors were still tricky to deal with, but they could be evicted with the use of a big mirror, a lot of bright lights, and a substantial amount of patience. Perhaps he’d recruit Finnegan and Banoffee, two of his more well-adjusted brothers, to help him get rid of it tomorrow. Finnegan’s hair had recently begun to change from white to pink, and Banoffee had perplexingly begun to sprout what seemed to be a pair of horns. Hordak’s own head was throbbing a little and he was refusing to acknowledge the two growing bumps above his ears. He did have a few stripes of blue in his hair, which pleased him, unlike the idea of having horns. Eugenics was such a fascinating subject! Since they had been exposed to new environments, existing genetic variation in the genomes of each clone had begun to manifest in some interesting ways. Their hair and eye colours were changing in response to their new lifestyles, and Entrapta was, of course, keeping scrupulous records.

Hordak had been in Dryl for two months now and had settled into a steady routine. Each morning, he’d awaken in his snug little cottage in the small clone-camp in a neighbouring valley. After washing and eating, he’d walk for twenty minutes or so up and over the ridgeline to Dryl. It was a pleasant enough journey on nice days, but passing squalls such as the one currently lashing the castle could brew up seemingly out of nowhere, and Hordak hoped earnestly that by winter, he and the clones would be able to move into Dryl itself. Crypto Castle wasn’t quite ready for residence by any being except Entrapta and her bots. It was dark, cold, and ancient, and Hordak could swear that some of the rooms reorganised themselves during the night. Stairways occasionally appeared where they hadn’t been before. That was another task he’d get around to some time: mapping the movements of the castle so that it could actually be used as a habitable building.

As he reflected upon this, there was a bright flash of purple and Glimmer appeared a few metres away, looking grumpy.  
“Why must this castle be so hard to navigate?” she grumbled.  
“I do not understand the rationale of it myself, but Entrapta seems to enjoy it. Good morning, Queen Glimmer,” replied Hordak. “What brings you to Dryl?”  
“Today is Scorpia’s coronation day. You’ve been banned from the other kingdoms of Etheria until your sentence is up...but Scorpia won’t proceed with the coronation until you’re there. She wants Entrapta to come too since they became such close pals in the Horde. Lance and George, you’re invited too, of course. So...I guess I’m here to pick you up!” she replied, with forced cheerfulness.

Entrapta flipped up her mask to peer at Glimmer, then cheered. “A coronation for Scorpia! Oh, how exciting. I’ve never been to one of those before!” She grabbed a fresh notebook and crossed the room in two enormous hair-strides. Lance and George followed in her wake.

“Okay, so, Hordak...I guess you’ve never been magically teleported before. Stand here....actually, wait, take Entrapta’s hand and I’ll take hers. Lance and George, hang on to me. That’s all. Just don’t let go.” said Glimmer.

***

They vanished and the world became a sort of a pink blur, then they reappeared in the newly-renamed Scorpion Zone. Hordak’s head spun, and he had to take a few deep breaths before he could stand straight. Entrapta steadied him with her hair as she babbled a few hasty observations about magical transportation into her recorder, and then they set off towards Pincer Hall.

The Fright Zone had been bedecked with vegetation since She-Ra deactivated the heart, and the Scorpi-clones had encouraged, or in some cases wrestled with, the greenery and flowers growing all over the hall to become something of a less chaotic tangle. The entire Scorpion Zone now resembled something like a jungle with the odd building peeking through the trees and exotic flowers, but Hordak could still see the outline of the colossal, ragged-edged crater from when he’d crashed his ship into Etheria. The remains of the ship’s fuselage and engines, where he’d built his Sanctum, were still there somewhere underneath all the plants....perhaps that enormous vine-covered tower over there? Yes. Hordak thought he could see the outline of one orange engine maw beneath a clump of blue-flowered shrubs. For once, it was Entrapta who had to drag him away from his enraptured staring.

Inside the Hall, there was a low hum of excitement. The seats were largely filled by clones, talking animatedly amongst themselves, but the Princesses were all there, of course, and some of Scorpia’s other friends. Hordak made a mental note to keep an eye out for Imp, but before he could make any move to start searching the room, Scorpia had hurried over and engulfed him in one of her notoriously spiny hugs.  
“Hordak!” she cried. “It’s so nice to see you here.” She was wearing a gorgeous, backless black gown, slit on one side and bedazzled with some kind of silvery-white gems around the lower hem.  
“That’s a very nice dress, Scorpia.” said Hordak, approvingly.  
“Thank you, Double Trouble made it for me! I’m sure they could whip you up something similar?...”  
“Yeah, Hordak looks great in clothes like that!” Entrapta enthused. “He’s really got the figure for it.”  
“Yes, and the shoulders too! You’re looking so healthy by the way, Hordak.” Scorpia smiled.

She turned to the other guests that had arrived with them. “Oh, hello Queen Glimmer. Thanks for picking everyone up! Hey, Lance and George, could you two brilliant historians do me a favour? I was kinda thinking we could have, you know, a presentation about the history of the Scorpion Kingdom and how the war started, but I don’t really know what to say....”  
George’s eyes lit up, and he hugged his grinning husband. “Say no more! We’ve got it covered.”  
“Fantastic! You two are just so smart and kind,” exclaimed Scorpia, delightedly.  
She turned to Hordak suddenly and grabbed his hand in one pincer. “Hordak, I’ve just remembered, there’s someone here that I absolutely HAVE to introduce you to!” Before he could say anything, she had dragged him and Entrapta to the front of the hall. “Huntara found them in the Crimson Waste when she was tracking down a few rebellious clones.”

***

Hordak gaped in shock at what he saw: a row of Scorpions, sitting with their tails curled neatly around them. He didn’t recognise any of them, not immediately, but there was something familiar about the face of the older lady on the far right. Yes, he recognised the stubborn cut of her jaw, the way her dark hair fell to the right side of her face, and those broad, powerful shoulders. He met her eyes, and stumbled towards her, towards his oldest friend and one of the only maternal figures he’d ever had. “Rachne!” he gasped, hoarsely.  
“Hordak,” she answered, rising to meet him, and pulling him to her chest.

They were silent for a few moments, and then, composing himself, Hordak stepped back again.  
“I thought you were dead?” he inquired, trying in vain to hide his watering eyes.  
“Not quite, although the way my armour plates and spines are beginning to creak in the morning, you’d think I was getting pretty close! And I’m only about halfway to a hundred!” she chuckled. “After I left you and Scorpia, and went to fight what I thought would be my last battle, I must have been knocked out cold and fallen into a ditch. I woke hours later, covered in mud, and found the battlefield completely deserted and myself surrounded by dead Horde soldiers. I thought we’d lost, and that you and Scorpia must have been killed....so I fled into the Crimson Waste. There, I found these guys and gals.” She gestured to the ten or so younger scorpions around her, and they waved back, politely. “They were orphans running from the war,” Rachne continued sadly, “some of them barely old enough to know how to shake their tails! I took care of them, and by the time I found out that you and Scorpia were still alive, years had passed. I had a new life and I didn’t want to be a part of the war anymore, not after seeing what happened to these children and not after losing Anida. I’m sorry. I know I should have come back, but....”

“I bear you no resentment,” Hordak answered, gently. “We both made our choices according to what we knew at the time, and it is what it is. I am ecstatic to see you still alive and well.”  
“And I am overjoyed to see you, and to know that you kept my daughter safe, just as you promised,” Rachne replied.  
“Ahhhhhh, that’s why you never intentionally sent me anywhere particularly dangerous, even though I was Force Captain! said Scorpia, her eyes going very wide.  
“Yes.” nodded Hordak. “You were always a formidable fighter, but I did not want to take any chances. It is also the reason that I kept you away from the Black Garnet. I thought that if you discovered your true power, you would throw yourself into dangerous situations, just as your parents did.”

Rachne smiled warmly, then glanced down at Entrapta.  
“Oh, the little purple tech-princess! You’ve grown up so beautiful and clever!” she said, admiringly. “You were barely thirteen when your father and mother died in that awful explosion when one of the weapons they were making for us malfunctioned. I felt so sorry for you, all alone in that big old castle, but you insisted you were alright with your robots....and everyone was so busy with the war, I guess we didn’t take care of you as well as we should have. I knew I should have introduced you to Hordak sooner!” She winked at them both.  
“But I was already fully-grown!” said Hordak, perplexed. “According to Etherian protocols, such a relationship would be....inappropriate.”  
“You’re right, and it’s great that you recognise that.” nodded Rachne. “But you certainly were not an adult when you crashed on Etheria! Not remotely.”  
“Explain.” queried Hordak, tilting his head quizzically.

“When Horde Prime decanted your body from its cloning tank, it might have been fully-grown but your mind and soul....well, you had no experience at all. No childhood. Emotionally, Hordak, you might as well have been a little boy tipped straight into the body of a man with a razor-sharp brain and thrown into a war. When you crashed on Etheria, you cried yourself to sleep for weeks. You needed Prime’s affirmation so badly.” She looked at him curiously for a moment. “You look different, by the way.”

“Yes, this body is a new one. Horde Prime replaced my defective body six months ago.” Hordak replied, gesturing at his blue-streaked hair.  
“Well, that proves my point! You have a thirty-something-year-old mind in a very new body.”

Entrapta paused from scribbling down notes, and looked up at Hordak. “How old ARE you?” she asked.  
“I served under Horde Prime for.....perhaps ten of your solar cycles. I lived with the Scorpions for two years before the birth of Scorpia, and the fighting began just after she turned one. It was three years after that when you left, Rachne....and then I continued the war in your name for perhaps seventeen solar-cycles after that. Therefore, according to your system of time measurement, I am thirty-three years of age. Mentally.”

Entrapta wrote all of this down, nodding. “So, it wouldn’t have been appropriate for us to have a romantic relationship like we do now when you first arrived on Etheria, because we appeared to be of very different ages, and also we were both children, but it is acceptable now because I am thirty and you are thirty-three but also six months old?”  
Hordak frowned, and contemplated this. He still wasn’t entirely sure what romance was, but it was true that he was considerably more fond of Entrapta than he was of anyone else, and the emotions he had for her were different in some way he couldn’t quite understand or quantify.  
“I suppose it is acceptable, age-wise now, “he said, finally, “but in the context of societal standing, our relationship is frowned upon because of my status as a war criminal.”  
“But I’m technically a war criminal, too!” Entrapta protested.  
“Well, there you are then. You’re perfect for one another, now!” laughed Rachne as Scorpia hurried back over to them.

“Hordak, as the former ruler of this kingdom, you have to crown me! Do you think you could do a short speech after Lance and George’s presentation?” Scorpia asked.  
“Affirmative.” replied Hordak. His head was spinning, but what else could he say?

***

Forty-five minutes later, after several well-received speeches from various Princesses and a short but truly excellent presentation by Lance and George on the history of the Scorpion people, it was time for Scorpia’s coronation. Hordak rose to his feet, squared his shoulders, and strode down the aisle towards Scorpia with as much grace and dignity as he could muster. Many years of leading armies had fortunately prepared him well for public speeches. That was one of the few things he could truly do well at short notice, as long as he remembered to take deep breaths and speak slowly. He spun on his heel as he reached Scorpia’s side, and took the elegant golden crown in his hands. The audience was still before him, more captivated than any of his soldiers had ever been.

“Ladies, gentlemen, and esteemed creatures of all kinds, genders and orientations!” he began, grandly. “Today I have been granted the tremendous honour of crowning Princess Scorpia as the rightful ruler of this kingdom. Her grandfather passed his authority and his throne down to me, and so I pass it on to her with full confidence that she will be a just and gracious ruler.”  
He turned to face Scorpia, and softened his tone just a little. “Scorpia, from the day you were born, you were a joy and a delight to all those around you. I am truly sorry that I plunged your kingdom into war for so long, and seeing this day brings me some peace. I can never repair the damage I have done, nor restore the lives that were lost. I know now that you never would have wished for us to defend your honour so violently. We should have sought an apology from the Princesses peacefully, and I should have forgotten Horde Prime.”

Micah stepped forward, and Hordak moved to the side, sensing what he was about to say.  
Taking Scorpia’s right claw in his hands, Micah spoke. “Scorpia, on behalf of the kingdoms of Etheria, I apologise for the discrimination we displayed towards you and your people, and humbly seek your forgiveness. We also apologise for the way we reacted to you, Hordak. New arrivals of all species should feel welcome on this planet, so long as they are peaceful, but we gave you the worst first impression possible! Etheria must move forward and pursue equality if we are to maintain the peace that we have all fought so hard for. Scorpia, I give you my congratulations. To all the clones, I extend our eternal hospitality. You will always be welcome on Etheria, and we are committed to treating you with respect and kindness.”

This speech received enthusiastic applause, and a few tears from Scorpia. “Of course I forgive you!” she cried, embracing Micah. “I forgive you all, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!”  
Hordak had to wipe away a tear of his own, then. He glanced at Entrapta, who was smiling like she was about to burst with pride, then he looked towards Rachne.  
“Rachne, step forward.” he boomed. “As the rightful former ruler of this kingdom, I command you to come and help me crown your daughter!”

Rachne rose to her feet, and came to stand with Hordak. They held the crown between them, smiling, tears now flowing freely down both their faces.  
“Scorpia, Princess of the Scorpion Zone,” said Hordak,  
“Beloved daughter of Anida and Rachne” said Rachne,  
“Esteemed friend of all Etheria and mighty warrior!” added Micah,  
“We crown you Queen of the Scorpion Zone! May your rule be one of peace and joy.” said Hordak and Rachne, together. They placed the crown on the new Scorpion Queen’s head, and the applause and cheering were almost deafening. There wasn’t a dry eye in the entire hall. Even Double Trouble was yelling, “Bravo! Brava!” with real tears in their eyes.

***

Hordak went to bed that night feeling about as contented as he had ever been. The coronation had been such a wonderful event, and after the ceremony he had found Imp flitting through the crowd to the absolute delight of them both. Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio promised that they would bring him to visit next week, and Hordak was already excited about it. He’d make the little sandwiches that Imp liked so much, the ones Entrapta had introduced them both to when she moved into the Fright Zone.

Most of all, however, Hordak remembered standing with Entrapta in his arms after he’d crowned Scorpia, and Rachne smiling at him with motherly pride and saying, “Well done, Hordak. I always knew you had good in you and I’m so proud of you. I knew you could do it!”  
Hordak drifted off to sleep, smiling. He’d never been so happy in all his life, and for the first time in his thirty-three years, he slept deeply without a single dream of Horde Prime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked this chapter. It builds on the previous chapter about the history of the Scorpion kingdom, and it made me cry, in a good way. Hordak does Wholesome Things. Entrapta is Entrapta. There's an Eldritch horror in the attic in Dryl. The clones are starting to grow their own hair-colours and horns, and if you think that's weird then just you wait! Some Wild Stuf is about to go down with the clones, and I have canonical arguments! (Thanks, Peter, for teaching me about eugenics and patiently enduring all my hypothetical questions about how clone genes would phenotypically express in different environments).  
> Hordak is happy with Entrapta, and has made new friends. All-round, it is Just A Good Time.
> 
> One mildly touchy subject I did address here is the issue of Hordak's age, and I hope I did a good job of it. A lot of people, quite fairly, have felt that his relationship with Entrapta could be inappropriate because their relative age difference could create a power imbalance. I wanted to make sure I wasn't accidentally writing or implying anything weird, so I sat down with a bit of paper and over the course of half an hour I worked out what I thought could be his approximate age, based mostly on the fact that he's old enough to have met Scorpia's grandfather, but young enough that people who fought him early in the war (eg Lance, George, Micah) look like they're in their forties (they've got a few streaks of grey but nothing significant). It's certainly not an exact guesstimate, but I did try, and I was actually quite surprised by how young Hordak potentially could be. I assumed, for the sake of simplicity, that both Etherians and Horde Clones have similar lifespans to us. Anyway, I ultimately determined that Hordak's not "too old" for Entrapta at all and that in terms of emotional maturity they're evenly matched (Hordak probably had no childhood or anything much in terms of formative experiences aside from war).
> 
> And yes, I brought one of Scorpia's mums back. I'd like to think that she's a kind of maternal figure to Hordak, and I've quietly been wondering if there were still any other Scorpions out there somewhere....so now there are because I said so! I love the Scorpions! Rachne and Anida's names are a loose anagram of "Arachnid". Thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, and following along - I'll see you in the next chapter!


	12. Taking Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once upon a time, Horde Prime was presumably born on a planet somewhere far, far away. What kind of creature was he, how did he become such a monster, and what does any of this have to do with Hordak?
> 
> Dedicated to my grandfather, who lost his wings and everything he loved at 17, and never gave up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hold on to your hats, dear readers. Let's get weird with a magical mixture of science and bullsh*t!

Entrapta trudged into Dryl, exhausted.  
“Hordak!” she called, before collapsing onto the ground.  
The sound of heavy footfalls came, followed by a formidable shadow cast over Entrapta.  
“Entrapta! Are you unwell? Is your condition cause for concern?” Hordak helped her to her feet, his brow furrowed over his pale eyes. His horns had grown ten centimetres in the past few weeks alone, and he feared that perhaps Entrapta had been working overtime, trying to discover why he was experiencing such drastic physical changes.  
“Oh, I’m fine...” Entrapta replied distractedly, batting his concern away with her hair. “I just need to sleep for a few hours....and eat some tiny food!”

Hordak helped her into the castle and laid her down on the first bed he could find. He sighed and sat down heavily. He did not like Entrapta exploring Prime’s vast ship without him protecting her, but he still had months of his “home detention” sentence left. She’d had Melog and Emily to keep her company anyway, and if he was being perfectly truthful, he was happy to never have to step aboard that ship again. Shuddering, Hordak recalled the uncanny feeling of having his own mind pushed aside and his will bent like the string of a bow. Horde Prime’s frequent intrusions into his head had left him with lasting nightmares, and he hoped, desperately, that She-Ra truly had driven his shadow from the universe.

***

Hours later when Entrapta awoke, Hordak made her consume three cupcakes and a grape soda before he let her begin talking. Once she started, he was sure she wouldn’t stop chattering about her theories until midnight.  
Downing the last of her soda with a prolonged slurp, Entrapta began slowly, which was odd for her.  
“So, I’ve just finished downloading the memory data from the last of the Primes.....or should I say the first Prime?” She paused for a moment, contemplating.  
“Anyway, I’ve discovered that their collective memory stretches back over six thousand years! It’s a treasure trove of information and it could take a whole lifetime or more to analyse! Just think, Hordak, Horde Prime’s memories may be the only surviving records of entire civilizations that he destroyed.”

Her eyes were lit with their usual enthusiasm, and Hordak relaxed a little for a moment, but then her voice faltered and she placed one hand in his.  
“Hordak,” she continued slowly, “most importantly, Lance and George and I have been working on something for the last few months and uh....we’ve finally discovered the truth about your history. Do...do you wanna hear it?”  
“Yes, Entrapta.” Hordak nodded slowly.

“Okay! A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, six thousand and sixty-three years and fifty thousand light-years to be precise, the first Horde Prime lived on a planet called Asterope. His civilization was destroyed by the First Ones during their endless quest for power, and he was the only one remaining of his kind. Swearing that he would take vengeance, Horde Prime stowed away on one of their ships and set out into the vastness of space!  
He overpowered the crew of the ship he was on and used it to bring down the rest of the First One's fleet that had destroyed his home. But the further he traveled, the more war he witnessed. In almost every world he encountered, he saw terror, disaster, and chaos. Where the First Ones had been, they left only rubble and the husks of their machines. Filled with hate and anger, Prime decided that the only way to bring peace was to not only extinguish the First Ones but also to cleanse every corner of the universe so that life could begin again.  
Prime realised he would need help, so he made his first clone, and after that, millions more. You might be wondering what this has to do with the rapid physical changes which are happening to you, but I have a theory, and I’ll get there in a minute.”

“I enjoy your theories, Entrapta. Continue.”

“At first, Prime didn’t yet understand enough about genetics to edit your genes or know how to do that....thing where he got into your head, but he knew he needed to control the clones in some way to prevent them from overpowering him. I’ve analysed some samples of that amniotic fluid he used to feed all of you, and there are some fascinating hormones in there, but the most interesting thing I discovered was the addition of a growth suppressant. That really confused me, so I did a bit of detective work to figure out what he was trying to prevent you from growing into.”  
She looked a little sheepish, but Hordak merely smiled knowingly.  
“Ah, is that why I caught you picking bits of hair off my clothing, and then heard you muttering for weeks about gel electrophoresis? You wanted to do a full-genome analysis!”

“Yes, and I was successful! After you told me that Imp was the result of a failed attempt to clone yourself, I took DNA samples from him to see what it was that made him so different to you....and it really got me thinking. Your genome is amazing: the biggest and most complex I’ve ever seen! The other interesting thing is that you aren’t a true genetic copy of Horde Prime: after a disastrous campaign early in his reign when sixty thousand of his soldiers were wiped out by disease, he realised that he needed more genetic diversity in his clones. He returned to his homeworld and collected DNA samples from the remains of his people across the planet so he could integrate their genes into your genomes. Over time, he learned to selectively repress or enhance certain genes to create uniformity and adapt clones to the environmental conditions of each planet he sent them to fight on. Although you all look very much the same currently, due to time and exposure to different environments, all the clones across Etheria will eventually express quite different genes.  
Your species, whatever it once was, doesn’t just have two hearts and a lot of genetic variation. You also have enormous lungs, and highly developed nervous and vascular systems which technically shouldn’t be necessary for a species that only has four limbs. That lead Lance, George, and I to the earliest copy of Horde Prime. We wanted to see if he retained memories of what his species used to be and examine his body for any physical difference. We discovered that the original body of Horde Prime, and even the second and third bodies, no longer exist. They were destroyed by the fourth Prime when he figured out to use a cocktail of hormones to inhibit features that were too complex to remove through gene editing. He didn’t want to keep any physical record of what he, or your species, used to look like. For some reason, though, he kept using wings as the symbol of the Horde. Perhaps it reminded him of what he'd once been, and what he'd sacrificed on his quest for revenge. It took us weeks to sort through his memories and find a good mental image that hadn’t been degraded by time, and could be reproduced in the false-Prime neural network we created: but it confirmed my theory, Hordak! Your species had wings, and you used to be able to fly!”

Hordak blinked slowly, digesting this information. He still wasn’t entirely sure where this was going, but he desperately wanted to find out. He nodded to indicate that Entrapta could resume talking.

“I realise this is a lot to take in at once, but I promise that the ultimate outcome should be fascinating! Anyway, because there are a number of genes associated wing formation, and they’re closely linked to your shoulder and chest musculature, Horde Prime was reluctant to remove them if he could allow the growth of features like broad shoulders and enhanced lung capacity, without the bulky, un-necessary wings forming. The nutrient solution he formulated for clones allowed you all to retain beneficial body features but prevented the growth of wings.

Now, this is where it gets really specific to you: I found vials of amniotic fluid containing seven times the regular dose of growth inhibitors, plus some more generic nasty toxins, in Horde Prime’s chambers. I couldn’t figure out what they were for until I remembered your “defects”. It never made sense to me that a being who had created millions upon millions of clones wouldn’t have a procedure to prevent or screen out genetic defects as severe as yours. It made me very suspicious.  
After searching the memories uploaded from his most recent body in the days before he died, I discovered that he had administered the contents of one of these vials to you. Lance and George have been collecting all memory-references to you from our data, and when they ran a kind of “search” on the data by stimulating the neurons associated with the term “top general amniotic fluid” they got hundreds of hits from each copy of Prime. Apparently, he had realised early on that having a second-in-command with the ability to think creatively and form independent conclusions was very useful. He worked out how to uh...brainwash his “Top General” clones a little differently so that you’d still more or less submit to him, but you’d come up with ideas on your own and have some degree of autonomy. However, he also didn’t want you to pose a threat to him, so he needed a way to gradually....cripple his generals and dispose of them before they rebelled.

So, basically, what I’m saying, Hordak is that you weren’t defective: you were poisoned over the years, mostly with high doses of growth inhibitors.

Not only did his poison prevent you from developing your wings, but it also slowed the process of cellular reparation and replacement. Over the course of several years, your muscles degraded and your internal organs stopped functioning correctly. Every time one of “your” clones would become too weak to function anymore, he would discard them on the frontlines, as he did with you, and copy some of their memories to another version. He did this about one hundred times, Hordak.”

She tightened her grip on his hand, and looked at him curiously.  
“But you... were different to your predecessors. You were stubborn, and too intelligent for his liking, so Horde Prime increased the dose of growth suppressant he gave you. That’s why you only spent about ten years helping him command his armies. Although you were a great general, he also sensed your strong desire for independence and saw you as a danger to his power. After you, Horde Prime tried to restructure the Horde so that he didn’t need a general, but he found that regular clones struggled to take initiative and act creatively. He needed you, Hordak. He needed your intelligence, your caution, and your ingenuity.  
Anyway, your independent nature became too much of a threat, and Horde Prime wrecked your body enough for you to believe you were useless to him. You got cast onto a First One's planet and Mara must have opened the portal you fell through when she was seeking the next She-Ra. Somehow you survived and built your empire on Etheria and then all of this...” she waved her hair about vaguely “...this happened. And I met you! And here we are! So...I think that’s everything I wanted to tell you for now.”

She sat down next to Hordak, who leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.  
“Then it makes sense why he kept my mind alive when I returned to him. My broken body was disgusting in his sight, and he wanted to see if I would “contaminate” a new vessel.”

“Precisely! As someone who relied heavily on memory wiping and mind control, Prime would definitely want to know more about a clone who had survived alone and developed autonomy. You’re an experiment Hordak, to see if the original results could be duplicated. Presumably, he was going to do the same thing to you again.”

“But he did not count on me having formed an attachment to another being. That is what broke his spell and unraveled six thousand years of careful memory wipes.” Hordak smiled, tiredly.  
“I am the same person, stripped clean of my identity over and over again and unceremoniously decanted into a new vessel like any other clone, ready to be used by Horde Prime until I broke again.” Unconsciously, he had clenched his clawed hands into fists. His eyes were burning.

Hordak wept. He had shed tears before when he thought he had lost Entrapta to Beast Island, but he had never known how to cry like this. His whole body shook as he sobbed. For Prime, he had levelled cities, empires, entire worlds. He had commanded an army and dedicated the first decade of his life to Primes’ will before the poison took effect and his body gave out on him.  
He remembered the first pang of pain he had felt, how his muscles wasted away, and how he had tried to hide it. Blaming himself for his weakness, when Prime discarded him at last Hordak had cowered like a beaten dog and vowed he would prove himself worthy again. Hungry, weakened and alone, he had nearly died that first week on Etheria. Somehow, he took one step after another and clawed his way up to conquering it with the help of the Scorpions. For Prime. A hundred versions of himself did it all for Prime, destroyer of worlds. He and all his predecessors and clones as numberless as stars had given their lives in mindless sacrifice to Prime’s burning hate. Hordak trembled now to think of the terrible things he had done so thoughtlessly. How sure he had been of the righteousness of Prime’s mission! How he regretted it now.

Entrapta still sat beside him, her eyes filled with tears, and her hair wrapped around his shoulders in an attempt to comfort him.  
“I’m sorry, Hordak. Perhaps I...uh...shouldn’t have told you.”  
“No, Entrapta. It is good to know the entire truth.”

Entrapta sat bolt upright, her hair bristling with sudden excitement.  
“Hordak, somehow I forgot that what I really wanted to tell you..... is that this time Horde Prime didn’t have enough time with you to completely poison you. This time, you can really be you! The whole you. There was never anything wrong with you, Hordak. Your “defects” hurt you terribly, but you made yourself strong and refused to give up. That was beautiful, Hordak.  
You were really always meant to grow wings but Horde Prime crippled you and filled you with doubt. Maybe in this body you can have wings! Wings, Hordak! Oh, I am so excited to see how you develop! I have to record everything!”

“My...shoulders....have been aching and itching lately,” replied Hordak, staring blankly at her in disbelief.

“Fascinating! Let me see!” cried Entrapta, wild-eyed with glee.  
Reluctantly he let her examine his back and shoulders, run half a dozen tests, and listened to her babble excitedly about wing development and science.  
“Now who would know about wings....about spontaneously developing wings...” she mused to herself.  
“Wait! I know! That talking bird horse thing has wings! I have to go and find him!” Grabbing a notebook, Entrapta raced out of the room.

Moments later she popped her head back in the door and said “Oh! By the way, I forgot to mention that you might grow a tail as well. Thanks Hordak have a nice day I’ll see you tomorrow love you bye!”  
She finished in a rush and disappeared down the corridor, hair flying wildly behind her.  
A tail? Thought Hordak, bemusedly. That was too much.

He wandered back out of the castle, yawning in the Etherian afternoon sun, towards his hut in the valley. His mind felt numb and his eyes still burned a little from the tears. Sitting down, he watched fifty or so of his brothers mill about in the sun, laughing, eating, playing and enjoying the possession of their own minds. Beyond this solar system, Hordak thought, there were perhaps millions more of them on countless worlds, free of Prime’s influence for the first time in their existence. What would happen to them? Would they continue their conquest for a time, as he had? Would they flee? Would they be slaughtered by the people they had once overthrown? Would they start their lives again, as his brothers were doing? And now, he wondered, could they take flight?  
Hordak did not know. All that consoled him was that every clone still alive now had a choice of some kind about what to make of their lives.  
Below him, he heard Hermann laughing. He had just taught another clone to wink, and Hordak smiled a little, then got up. His head hurt. His shoulders burned. His back ached, and he was certain that he did not want a tail. Retreating to his bed in the cool silence of his hut, Hordak lay down  
and slept.

***

The following morning, Hordak’s back throbbed ferociously and knots of muscle pushed up against the skin at the base of his spine and on his shoulder blades. Nevertheless, he made his bed, ate, washed, and stretched as was his custom. He was a creature of order and precision, and as dearly as he loved Entrapta, he did find her a little chaotic.  
He knew her very well though, and when he sat down cross-legged in front of the hut to wait for her, a dark speck soon appeared in the sky, approaching rapidly in a flurry of coloured wings. It was Swiftwind, bearing.....Hordak strained his eyes a little and saw...ah, yes, Entrapta and Adora.

They landed minutes later, and as Entrapta and Adora tumbled off Swiftwind’s back, Hordak tossed him an apple, which he caught neatly mid-air and crunched down with great delight. Entrapta hurried over to greet Hordak.  
“Gooogh morning, Hordagh!” Swiftwind bugled cheerfully through the last of his apple and shook his thick mane out of his eyes into a more stylish arrangement. “I hear you’re growing...uh...”

There was a bright purple flash next to them and Glimmer appeared suddenly with Bow and Catra clinging to her, all yelling,  
“WINGS! HORDAK IS GROWING WINGS!”  
“HOW CRAZY IS THIS!” yelled Glimmer.  
Hordak groaned and covered his ears.  
“I know, right!” agreed Bow.

“Who’d have thought it, Lord Hordak himself is finally turning into a bat!” remarked Catra, mostly to Adora, with a particularly sarcastic twitch of her tail.  
“Do not call me Lord Hordak again, Catra. I am not Lord of anything. I am an ordinary person.” Hordak said, tiredly. Catra rolled her eyes so far back they almost disappeared into her skull, and laughed.  
“Hah! You’re certainly Lord Grumpypants this morning, aren’t you!”

Hordak’s ears twitched indignantly for a moment, then he smiled. Catra loved to tease him, but he was coming to accept her constant jibes as a form of affection. He stood up, and took Entrapta’s hand. She had been busily examining his back for any sign of change overnight and was already making notes.  
“Yes, according to Entrapta, it is likely that I may develop wings. I take it that your discussions with Swiftwind proved fruitful?” he said to Entrapta, who looked like she was about to burst with anticipation.  
“Of course! Swiftwind told me that She-Ra was the one who gave him his wings, so we thought we should bring her along....and the sword too!”

“Why does She-Ra need to intervene? You implied last night that my wings would grow naturally,” questioned Hordak, a little worriedly.  
Entrapta glanced down at her computer pad and fidgeted little nervously before answering. “Well, when I examined some of the data I got from the first three Primes, the ones with wings, I discovered something very...interesting. Although wing formation begins when a new clone starts to form, they don’t grow fully until the clone is mature. The process happens over the course of several months, and apparently it is quite painful. Developing a large set of wings is not an easy feat. On Asterope, it was considered a rite of passage for your species to suffer through wing growth without complaining.”

She looked up into Hordak’s eyes and said quietly, “We don’t want you to suffer.”

“That’s right!” said Adora firmly, stepping forward with her sword glinting in her hand. “Catra told me about how Horde Prime wiped your mind on his ship. She said she’d...”  
“Never forget the way you screamed.” finished Catra, grimly. “It was at that moment that I started to understand why you were the way you were. I hated your big brother, like any good Etherian, but what I hated most of all was the pleasure he took in making others suffer. I saw that in myself in my worst moments, when I just wanted vengeance on Adora. I thought it would prove that I was better and stronger and that I didn’t need anyone but....when I saw what Horde Prime did, it made me feel sick. When he wiped my memory, it was one of the worst experiences of my entire life. No offense to your like, species, or whatever, but a culture based on sadism and suffering is just awful. Maybe your predecessors had to grow wings in pain, but you’ve been trying so hard to escape who you used to be and....”

“We want to help you.” Bow said gently, stepping forward with Glimmer, who said “Nobody should have to suffer because of Horde Prime, ever again! Not even you, not on our watch!”

Unexpectedly, Hordak felt tears in his eyes. “Thank you,” he said hoarsely, a little stunned. His back spasmed again and he grunted in pain. “What is your plan?” he asked Entrapta, who had both ponytails nervously coiled around his shoulders.  
“Well....we have two plans, actually. Any good scientist always has a backup! The first plan is that Adora does her She-Ra thing with the magic sword, and it makes your wings and tail grow. The backup plan is....”  
Glimmer vanished suddenly, then reappeared with Scorpia.  
“...to use Scorpia’s venom as a kind of pain killer while your wings grow naturally and I spoon-feed you lots of nutritious tiny food” Scorpia coiled her barb-tipped tail around her and waved to Hordak nervously.  
Hordak sighed. He trusted Entrapta almost unconditionally, and it seemed that he had little choice. His back was aching continuously now, and his mind was foggy. “Let us get this over with”.

***

Entrapta cut two long slits in the back of his robes for the wings to push through, then gave the thumbs up to Adora.  
Stretching out her arm, sword held high, she yelled, “For the Honour of Greyskull!”  
Hordak wondered for the nth time who Grayskull was anyway, and watched her transform once again into the 8-foot tall, golden-haired, warrior-princess, She-Ra.

She lowered the sword point towards his chest. Her eyes glowed and a torrent of light and magic poured forth from the sword, lifting Hordak off his feet. His back burned, there was a blinding flash of light, the sound of someone crying out in pain and then....Hordak was on the ground on all fours with tears streaming down his face. His hair was hanging in his face, completely blue again, but his wings remained buried stubbornly under his skin, which now bulged grotesquely. The pain was almost unbearable and he realised that the voice that had been screaming had been his own. Entrapta was beside him, trying to comfort him  
.  
“It was hurting you too much! I couldn’t complete the transformation” protested She-Ra, dismayed.

Hordak stood up, groaning. “Get. It. Over. With.” he snarled, through gritted teeth.

“Wait!” cried Entrapta. “We can combine BOTH plans! Scorpia, come here!”  
Hordak didn’t even flinch as Scorpia’s tail whipped forward and its sharp tip stung his chest. He sagged almost immediately and Bow and Entrapta caught him as the numbness set in and he fell forward. He sank into a kind of half-consciousness and dimly he saw She-Ra raise her sword again. There was another blinding flash of light and then....

....and then he woke, lying on his stomach, gasping a little. Lifting his head slowly he saw that the sun was directly overhead now. He must have been unconscious for a few hours.  
He pushed himself up a little, and suddenly the others were all crowded around him, anxious and chattering. They helped him sit upright with Swiftwind lying at his back to support him. His shoulders felt so strangely heavy and he could swear he saw something twitching out of the corner of his eye.

Entrapta put a tiny pastry into his mouth, and then another. He chewed, swallowed, blinked and suddenly Entrapta had pried his jaws open and was examining his pointed fangs with great interest.  
“Hordak! Your teeth are red again! And oh....your eyes are too. I missed your red eyes so much! Look at your horns, too; they’re so much bigger now.” She smoothed his hair back out of his face and ran her hands over his horns. They curved back and then curled out, curiously ridged and spiked along their length. Brushing her fussing gently aside, Hordak answered her, a little grumpily, “I am grateful that you like my horns, teeth, and my eyes but they are inconsequential. What I want to know is....” he turned his head to the side and trailed off.

Wings. He had wings. They were enormous and sat folded at his sides, glistening a little with the remnants of magic. Just thinking about them made them tremble a little, and with some focus, he managed to spread them out to their full length They were a stunning, iridescent blue reminiscent of the open sea. Hordak stood up, wide-eyed, and turned his head every which way so he could examine them better. He folded, then unfolded them again and again while his friends just stood and stared. Then he noticed that his spine felt a little strange and something moved behind him. A tail. His tail. It was long and tapered to a point, with two triangular fins on each side of the tip. Entrapta already had a measuring tape out and was trying to pin the end of his tail town so she could measure it. Hordak chuckled, and flicked it gently out of her reach, starting a little with how easily he could move it.

“So, is this going to happen to every clone?” Bow queried.  
“Probably! Hordak’s the first because as soon as I suspected what was going on, I started feeding him a diet rich in nutrients needed for tissue development!” Entrapta replied.  
“Ugh, so that’s what all that high-protein probiotic yoghurt was for?” Hordak grumbled. He'd been suspicious, but it was hardly unusual for Entrapta to experiment a little on him, and herself.  
“Yep! Hermann helped me make it. He’s getting to be a real wizz in the kitchen!”

“All....fifty two thousand clones are going to grow wings?” Adora murmured, looking a little faint.  
“Yes. But we can worry about that later. For now, let’s celebrate the success of our Test Subject!”  
Entrapta grinned.

Everyone laughed and cheered and pushed in close to embrace.  
Hordak smiled, wings spread around his friends. He did like his new tail, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, I did give Hordak wings. It made no sense to me that the Horde symbol would be wings unless at some point in their history, Horde clones or whatever they used to be had wings. The clones in the tanks in Hordak's lab seemed to be developing wings, too, so I took some creative liberty and ran with it.
> 
> Another reason I chose to do this is that there are already many beautiful fanfics about Hordak remaining in his "defective" body and learning to accept his disabilities. I've read a few of them and loved the attention to detail that the various authors paid; for example, having Entrapta make Hordak a wheelchair and adding elevators to Dryl. My intention was certainly not to erase Hordak's disabilities. I personally believe that Horde Prime, being the asshat he is, gave Hordak a new body to see if he reverted to his previous, "rebellious" state, since if you're leading a clone army that's probably very useful information to have. Prime is arrogant, but he isn't stupid. It would be impossible for him to be as old, technologically advanced, and successful a conqueror as he is without some substantial intellect. I think he'd be pretty concerned if a clone he'd assumed to be dead turned out to have developed autonomy and more or less conquered an entire planet, and I think he'd want to know why, and how, and if it would happen again. However, the idea that Hordak remains in his original body and simply gets fixed up is equally valid, and I'd be interested to know what people's headcanons are regarding this.
> 
> I wanted to take a different angle on Hordak's origin story, and for some reason, I questioned the true cause of Hordak's defects from the moment he mentioned them. It just seemed too "convenient" for Horde Prime to be able to dispose of his top general...so here we are. I suppose I also wanted to really give Hordak and his brothers a chance at a new life. They represent people stripped of all individuality, colour, and culture, forced into an endless war that they didn't start. That's horrific. I feel like they deserve something better in a pretty big way, and the metaphor of "taking flight" is an important and sentimental one for me, personally. 
> 
> And yeah, Horde Prime gets a sad backstory, too. He seems like a fairly mentally unstable character, and I figured that the near-complete genocide of his people followed by six thousand years of war would explain that. He also names She-Ra as his "oldest enemy" so that could indicate that he's been fighting the First Ones for a long, long time. You don't develop a comprehensive god complex like his overnight! He's still an ass, though, and I hate him and his four eyes.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed that and it made at least some kind of sense :)


	13. Detonation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra, Adora, Hordak, and Entrapta are commissioned by Glimmer to blow up Horde Prime's ship. It's the fireworks show of a lifetime.

Adora yelled joyfully as Swiftwind turned and dove through a bank of cloud in hot pursuit of Hordak. Nearby, Opallie hovered with Catra clinging determinedly to her neck, eyes still half-closed. She hated flying, and how especially the way people joked “Ah well, if you fall off you’ll land on your feet, right?”. Her head spun as she mistakenly glanced at the ground far below them. Nothing without wings landed well when it fell, not from this height. Still, after years of being separated from Adora, she was determined to spend every possible moment with her.

Below them, tens of thousands of clones in fluorescent safety harnesses crawled across the surface of Prime’s spires. Armed with massive angle-grinders and pry-bars, they were literally pulling apart the remnants of their tormentor’s kingdom to build their own homes. Teams of bots assisted them, carrying sheets of titanium away for processing as the clones cut them loose. Some of the more exotic materials were neatly stacked to one side so they could be examined by Entrapta, and put to whatever use best suited them.

  
Hordak had been hard at work in the past months, figuring out the best way to deconstruct the Spires and redistribute the materials across Etheria. He’d set aside some particularly nice, curving space-grade windows that he thought would be great for panoramic views in Mermista’s new palace, and she’d accepted them a little reluctantly, but at least she admitted that she liked the gift.

Mermista was still deciding what she thought of the “new” Hordak, but he was happy enough that she was talking to him now. The reconstruction of Salineas was proceeding smoothly, and after some initial suspicion, Mermista had taken a liking to the clones who had elected to move there to help with the building. She’d already started a “Mer-Mysteries” book club with them and was forced to admit that it was quite nice having an inhabited kingdom again. An added benefit of having clones around is that they’d listen to Seahawk’s endless stories with rapturous admiration, and would join him in singing sea-shanties. He was teaching a few dozen of them to sail, too, with a surprising amount of success. Seahawk was therefore kept busy and happy, and boat-burning events were at an all-time low. As far as Mermista was concerned, this was a miracle.

Hordak swooped up from his exuberant racing with Swiftwind and Adora, landing neatly on Opallie’s back. Entrapta waved down at him from her seat on Opallie’s head and resumed her notes on cloud formations. It had been a month and a half since Hordak had sprouted wings, and his weekly training sessions with Swiftwind and Opallie were really beginning to pay off. In the beginning, he’d been clumsy and uncertain. On more than one occasion Entrapta had had to scoop him up and carry him inside, more to attend to his wounded pride and bad temper than to bandage any small scrapes he might have sustained. After a particularly memorable crash where he ended up hanging with his horns firmly stuck in a tree, he refused to talk to anyone for two days.  
However, nobody in their right mind could say that Hordak wasn’t persistent. With Entrapta’s encouragement, his attitude towards failure was improving, little by little. He crashed over and over and yet he’d pick himself up willingly, day after day, and take off again to do a few more laps around Dryl. 

Opallie was the most understanding of his struggles with flight. Swiftwind’s wings had been a product of magic, and therefore they functioned perfectly right from the get-go. Opallie and Hordak, however, had natural wings with natural muscle, and tails to steer with. They had to learn the hard way. As old as she was, Opallie still remembered her awkward, fluttering attempts as a hatchling, and how her wings ached after even short exertions. She found a nearby hot spring in the mountains, and would deposit Hordak in it at the end of the day when he was too sore and tired to train anymore.

His stamina had improved markedly in the last few weeks, and today he’d been flying for hours without needing to catch his breath too often. Opallie turned her head to huff a friendly greeting at him as he folded his wings and walked along her back towards Catra and Entrapta.  
“You are flying so well today!” Opallie said, in her curious, rumbling voice. She’d learned a lot about enunciation lately, and was now coherent to most Etherians.

“Thank you.” smiled Hordak. He crouched beside the green-faced Catra and pulled something out of his pockets. “Eat this. It will help to ease the nausea.” He was holding out what looked like some kind of crystallized plant root.  
Catra opened one eye and sighed. What did she have to lose? She took a bite of it and chewed thoughtfully. It was pleasantly spicy, refreshing, and a little sweet. A few minutes later, she felt well enough to open both eyes.

“It is called ginger-root.” said Hordak, in response to her unasked question. He was watching Adora and Swiftwind playing in the clouds. Adora was practicing transforming into She-Ra, and leaping off Swiftwind’s back. He’d plummet down with her for a few seconds, then turn mid-air to catch her, and she’d swing onto his back again.  
Hordak and Catra glanced at one another, and smiled.

“You know, sometimes life isn’t so bad,” remarked Catra. Adora was happy, and so was she.

Hordak nodded, then glanced up at the positioning of the sun. “Queen Glimmer will be arriving soon, and she will be expecting us to be back at Dryl.” Motioning to Swiftwind and Adora that it was time to go, he leaped gracefully off Opallie’s back, wings unfurling. Entrapta slid down Opallie’s neck to take a more secure seat and shouted enthusiastically to Hordak, “Remember to keep your tail straight when you dive and pull up gradually. I know you can do it today, honey!”  
“Thank you, Entrapta,” Hordak said, rolling his eyes just a little. “Close your eyes, do not look down, and just enjoy the ride!” he called back up to Entrapta and Catra.  
Catra nodded, hesitantly, and Entrapta whooped. Opallie tucked her wings at her sides, roaring with joy, and dove.

Together they plunged downwards, exhilarated by the rush of the air and the irresistible pull of gravity. At 850 metres, Entrapta signalled to Opallie, who roared to Hordak and Swiftwind to begin opening their wings to slow their descent. Hordak gritted his teeth. This was the hardest part. As the ground rushed up towards them he extended his wings until they were fully spread. The strain on his flight muscles was tremendous, but he held steady and remembered to use his tail-fins to steer as he slowed and levelled out. He circled a few times with Opallie on one side and Swiftwind on the other to guide him in, then beat his wings back for a few strokes to reduce his speed. He landed with a hop and a flutter in the castle courtyard, then folded his aching wings neatly and tried to ignore the thunderous beat of his heart. Adjusting to being a winged creature had not been easy. As much as Hordak tried to put a brave face on it, he could certainly sympathise with Catra’s fear of heights.

Dismounting Opallie, Entrapta bounded over to him and embraced him so exuberantly that he was nearly swept off his feet. He smiled down at her glowing face and did his best to listen to the uninterrupted stream of flight-related words issuing from her mouth.  
“Well done, Hordak!” she cheered. “That was a record-breaking flight and a wonderful landing. According to my data records, you’ve made considerable improvement since this time last week!”

Hordak blushed a little and bit his lip while she checked the stats from the flight-tracker she’d attached to one of his horns. He was beginning to like his horns; they were so useful for hanging tools and things from if one wanted them in easy reach, and one could even impale notes about things one needed to remember on the points.

Nearby, Catra had just slid awkwardly off Opallie and was lying facedown, arms outstretched as though she wanted to hug the solid ground beneath her. Adora helped her up and dusted her off.  
“How was it today?” she asked, a little anxiously.

“Well, I didn’t die,” replied Catra, flatly. She brightened a little. “Hordak gave me this weird ginger-root stuff which helped my stomach. He says they’ll probably have it at Brightmoon and Hermann will know what it is!”  
“Aw, thanks Hordak!” beamed Adora. He scowled and stared at the ground. There were only so many compliments he could take at once.

Thankfully, Glimmer appeared at that moment and saved him from further mortification. “Perfect timing!” she remarked cheerfully as she stepped forward to embrace Adora. “What is it you’ve come all this way to say to us?” asked Catra. “Couldn’t you just have asked us in Brightmoon?”

“I wanted to address both you and Entrapta at once.” Glimmer explained. “I have a super-important mission for you both: blow up Horde Prime’s ship.  
Catra and Entrapta grinned enormously, and high-fived one another.  
“I’d thought you’d never ask!” laughed Catra.  
“I’ve been on edge all week since I finished my last data-and-tech collection trip!” said Entrapta. “You gave me until the end of summer to collect data, and now it’s the first day of Autumn and I’m pretty sure I’ve got all the information I can squeeze out of that ship!”

“That’s fantastic, ‘cause after you’re done with that ship, I hope there won’t be anything left to collect data from!” chuckled Glimmer.

“Oooh, so how are we gonna do it?” Catra asked Entrapta.  
“Hmm, I was thinking of maybe placing a few timed bombs on each level of the ship, and a really big one in the engine bay! Wait...Glimmer, I’m still banned from making weapons, aren’t I?”  
“I’ll let you off just this one time. Royal orders, ya know.”

“Great! Well then, we’ll set the ship on a course out of Etheria’s atmosphere and time the explosions so that they only go off once the ship is a safe distance away.

Glimmer nodded her approval. “Alright then! I’ve gotta get back to Brightmoon; Bow’s been super on edge lately for some reason and I don’t wanna leave him alone for too long. Hordak, Entrapta, Catra! Get working on those bombs. How much time do you need?”

“We can be ready for detonation in forty-eight hours!” Entrapta said, grinning manically.

***

Thirty-six hours later, after two days of utter, gleeful chaos and mad science, the bombs were ready.

Hordak, Entrapta, Adora, and Catra took off for Prime’s ship at dawn, filled with nervous excitement. Inside the hold of Mara’s ship were four enormous bombs.  
Catra, during her wanderings on the ship after Prime had captured her, had discovered that a series of interesting twisty passages lead to a VERY heavy-duty door that presumably lead to somewhere very, very near the massive reactors that powered the ship’s engines. Even Entrapta hadn’t managed to determine what powered those reactors: whatever it was, it was extremely heavy, unstable, and distinctly unnerving. According to Hordak, Prime’s ships could reach a cruising speed that was 88% of the speed of light, and up to 92% if they really needed to push it. Using portals took care of most of the Horde’s deep-space travel needs, but it was nevertheless extremely useful to have a very, very fast ship. Traversing the vastness of space was no small matter, and in his six thousand years, Prime had mastered it.

Entrapta was a little sad to be losing such magnificent engines, but she’d taken every note, recording, measurement, and sample she could think of. Even if she hadn’t yet found out precisely what kind of fuel was in those engines, she did know one thing for certain after an unfortunate incident where she spilled a few drops of it:  
It was very, very, unbelievably combustible. Her eyebrows were still growing back, weeks later.

Together, they rolled one bomb each aboard the ship (Hordak had thoughtfully suggested adding wheels so they could be moved around more easily) and Catra lead them to the reactor-chamber. Hordak examined the door for a moment, then pulled out a small device that emitted a beam of white-hot light. It sliced through the door like a knife through cold butter: not easily; but then again nothing was going to slice easily through a four-inch-thick layer of titanium.  
Five minutes later, the door fell open with a resounding thud that echoed down the passageway. Hurriedly, they pushed the bombs inside and secured them in the corners of the room.

The reactors towered above them, their sleek surfaces so black that no light reflected off them from Entrapta’s torch-beam. She silently thanked herself for taking the precaution of outfitting them all with protective suits. Even then, it was dangerous to remain in this room for more than a few minutes at a time, so they worked quickly.

Adora secured the last strap holding her bomb firmly to the wall, and turned to face Entrapta.  
“Now what?” she asked, her voice muffled a little by her mask.  
“Now we run!” grinned Entrapta.

They ran, giggling like naughty children, down the corridors of Prime’s ship back to their own. Entrapta wouldn’t push the timer-switch to detonate the bombs until they were safely inside Mara’s ship and far away, but still. You couldn’t be too careful, and the excitement just added to the fun, she reckoned.

“Take us away, Darla!” Entrapta called as soon as they had boarded her, all of them breathing a little hard and still laughing.  
The ship took off, and as it pulled away rapidly, Entrapta sent a signal to the engines of Prime’s ship. All four of them fired together, sending plumes of searing blue light into the atmosphere.

The monstrous, tree-filled bulk of Prime’s ship creaked, groaned, and launched itself into space for the very last time.

***

“Ready for the final countdown?” said Entrapta, holding out a remote with a comically large red button.  
“I’ve been ready for this since the day I was born.” replied Catra, and slammed the button down.  
“Detonation. In. Fifteen. Minutes.” Darla announced. Catra’s eyes had never been so wide. Finally, she was getting to blow something really, really big into smithereens, and she was going to imagine that Shadow Weaver was onboard.

***

All four of them tumbled out of Mara’s Ship in a hurry as soon as it landed. Prime’s ship had almost reached Desiderata, the largest of Etheria’s moons. Entrapta had changed her mind about its final trajectory. Faced with the choice of launching it into outer space, where there would be no air resistance to slow down bits of ship hurtling off in all directions at tremendous velocities, or blowing it up in the atmosphere, which would possibly be safer but result in a lot of meteor showers, she had gone for a third option, which Hordak had suggested.

Entrapta had set the ship on a course to crash directly into Desiderata. It would leave a large crater, but it would be a spectacular sight and the debris would orbit the moon instead. Glimmer had negotiated with the Mystacorian astronomers, and after she’d promised them they could name the new crater, they had reluctantly agreed. The idea that the most enduring reminder of Horde Prime would be an enormous crater from blowing up his ship was, admittedly, very satisfying.

Half of Etheria, it seemed, was there to see the show, and what had begun as a simple act of demolition was now a full-blown party. The music swelled over the sounds of laughter and conversation as Hordak, Catra, Adora, and Entrapta took their seats. Micah had created a big magical projection of the countdown timer, and as it reached the last ten seconds, everyone yelled out the numbers.

When it reached one, there was a moment of utter silence, and then the sky lit up as the ship impacted the moon and burst apart in flares of yellow, red, and orange. The blast radius must have been kilometres wide and threw up a massive cloud of dust and rock fragments on Desiderata’s surface. It was the biggest explosion that anyone had ever seen, and the crowd roared with approval.

“That. Was. Awesome!” giggled Catra, hi-fiving Adora.  
“It was indeed awesome.” agreed Hordak. “It brings me some peace to see the final destruction of that ship. I experienced some of the most miserable, humiliating moments of my life there.”  
Entrapta hugged him tightly, and the music began to play again.

Glimmer and Bow were embracing, something glinting on the third finger of each of their left hands, and everyone around them was yelling and clapping. Food and wine were handed out, and the party lasted long into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After such an intense, information-dense chapter as the last one, it's a relief to write something a little simpler. Catra gets to blow up a ship. I thought it would be very cathartic for her, as well as for Hordak, after the horrible things they experienced onboard. It's just nice having Catra, Adora, Hordak and Entrapta do fun destructive stuff together, ya know?  
> Bow and Glimmer get engaged! I didn't make a big deal out of it, but I feel like Bow would be very nervous, and an event like that would be the perfect excuse for him to propose as he seems like the kind of person who needs a set deadline!  
> I also really enjoyed writing the flight scene and spent quite a lot of time observing birds taking off and landing to see how they did it.
> 
> The next chapter is gonna be a big one. Might take a couple of days to edit. I hope you like monsters and angst with a happy ending!


	14. Dissonance Before the Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora wakes at 2am. Something is very, very wrong.

Adora woke with a start, gasping, from another nightmare about being pulled through a portal and trying to save someone over and over. She’d had the same dream for the last few nights, but every time the person she needed to save changed. Last night it had been Catra, deranged, guilt-ridden and vicious. That had been hard to wake up from, and she’d stared at Catra’s back in the half-light of their room in Brightmoon for a long time before she fell asleep again. 

Tonight, she’d dreamed of Angella, winging her way into the spiralling vortex of chaos that the portal had created. There was nothing she could do, nothing she could say to stop it. Her feet were paralysed, her voice muted, all the power leached from her body as she watched helplessly and wept.   
Angella’s sacrifice had been entirely voluntary, but it still haunted Adora, continually, and she could never shake the nagging what-ifs.

As she tried to steady her breathing and slow her racing thoughts, the air around her shimmered. Her bones ached suddenly, and the air temperature dropped. Shivering, she got to her feet to investigate, but whatever it was had already gone. She crawled uneasily back into bed. Wakened by the movement, Catra rolled over with a questioning “Bwrrr?”  
Adora smiled, her mood lightened instantly. “It’s nothing, Catra.” Pulling her close, she finally relaxed and drifted back off to sleep.

The following night, it happened again, and the night after too. It became a regular occurrence. Every night around 2 am, Adora would waken from a dream about Angella and be engulfed by the strangest feeling of absolute nothingness. In that instant, the world felt achingly empty and timeless. She was weightless and yet she could barely breathe in the sudden, crushing pressure. 

Adora told nobody about this, of course. How could she? It wasn’t anything she could even begin to understand or explain, but days later when she saw dark circles beneath Glimmer’s eyes, she began to think that she wasn’t the only one experiencing this. One by one, the other inhabitants of the castle gained that same drawn, wary look on their faces and yet nobody dared to speak of it. Even Catra, lying right beside her with her knees drawn to her chest and her eyes as wide as saucers, would swear black and blue that she was fine and nothing was happening.

It was only weeks later when Adora was prowling the castle, pacing restlessly after her 2 am unease, that she found one of the clones lying in a fetal position on the floor, shaking all over.  
“Fergus? Is that you? Are you alright?” Adora whispered urgently, turning the clone over gently to look into his eyes. They were wide with fear and he shrank back from her touch briefly before realizing who she was and relaxing a little. Still, she could almost feel the thunder of his two hearts beating wildly in his chest. Something was very, very wrong.

“Yes, Adora, physically I am well and there is no cause for concern.” Fergus began, sitting up and pressing his forehead to his knees. He ran his fingers through his purple-streaked hair, searching for words. “Mentally, however, I am experiencing severe psychological trauma. There is...an anomaly in the fabric of spacetime somewhere on this planet. I can feel it. I do not know how, but I can and it is a sensation I have encountered before.”

“An anomaly in the fabric of spacetime....” murmured Adora, thoughtfully. A sudden, horrifying possibility occurred to her and her face blanched as white as that of the clone beside her.   
“Fergus, when you say it’s an anomaly, you don’t mean a portal kind of anomaly? Like, as in someone is trying to open a portal?”  
“No, not precisely. The sensation is identical that which I feel when a portal to a very specific destination is successfully opened.”  
“And what is that destination?”

Fergus hesitated. “I believe that the term you might use to explain it is “Nowhere”.  
“Nowhere?” scoffed Adora. “Nowhere isn’t a place you can go...it’s....an abstract concept.”  
“But you CAN go there!” Fergus insisted. “It is not a place. It is the space between places.”  
Adora rubbed her forehead and grimaced. None of this made any sense. No sense at all.

Unless....unless!

***

“HORDAK!” yelled Glimmer, incandescent with rage. After Adora had shaken her awake moments after her conversation with Fergus, whispering urgently about portals to interdimensional space being opened, Glimmer had drawn her own conclusions on the portal’s origin very quickly indeed. There were only two beings on the entire planet who had successfully opened one before, and at present, they were occupying the same castle in Dryl. Before Adora could finish her rambling explanation and extensive apologies for waking her up, Glimmer had already teleported to the Scorpion Zone, then Plumeria, and worked her way around all the locations of the members of the Princess Alliance. In less than an hour, all of them had been debriefed and were in Dryl, weapons drawn, standing before Hordak, Entrapta, and what was very obviously a large and operational portal.

“Princesses! I think we’re in trouble,” said Entrapta to Hordak, hair coiled nervously around them both.

“Before I blast you and everything you’ve ever done off the face of this planet,” Glimmer snarled, “I want to know why, after all this time, after all that we’ve done for you...WHY did you two IDIOTS think you could open ANOTHER PORTAL and get away with it?”

Hordak sighed. He’d been anticipating this conversation for a long time; it was inevitable. Still, he’d hoped to prolong its occurrence for at least another week so that the portal testing could be completed. “We are attempting to open a portal into the Void so that we may attempt to rescue your mother. For the last few weeks, we have been testing the portal’s stability to make sure that it does not cause the catastrophic issues that the last one did,” he said and gave no further explanation.

Glimmer’s head spun. She’d never been so taken aback in her entire life, and she had to sit down and stare at the floor for a bit. “Why....what...” she stammered.

Thankfully, a furious Mermista found the words for her. “WHY should we believe YOU? You started a two-decade war, destroyed MY kingdom, brought your creepy brother here, and almost destroyed all of Etheria for the sake of power, and you expect us to believe you? HOW DARE YOU!” she shrieked, barely restrained by Seahawk. Glimmer was rising to her feet, her fists balled and sparking with magic. Catra’s claws were out, She-Ra’s sword was raised and behind them, every Princess Alliance member gritted their teeth and took up their fighting stances. 

Hordak towered above nearly all of them, wings outstretched protectively over Entrapta, tail lashing and red eyes lit with fiery anger. He bared his teeth; Glimmer stepped forward and opened her mouth to shout, and then Scorpia was standing between them.  
“No.” she said, firmly. Her stinger swayed menacingly behind her, the tip glinting a little in the faint light thrown off by the portal.   
“I will not let my friends hurt each other, and you are my friends. All of you.” She glanced back at Hordak. “I know he’s done a lot of bad stuff in the past, but he really does seem to be changing...and I know Entrapta never really means to hurt anyone!” She looked pleadingly at Glimmer, who was still glaring at Hordak behind her. 

“Why don’t we ask them some questions first, and if they can’t come up with reasonable answers, THEN we can blast them?” suggested Frosta.  
“That’s....actually a really good idea.” said Swiftwind, peering down at Frosta with interest.  
“Alright.” Glimmer agreed, reluctantly.

***

She-Ra held the point of her sword at Hordak’s throat and tipped his chin up, just a little. Bow stood at his back, a shock arrow drawn and ready. Hordak curled his lip and bared his red fangs contemptuously. Although She-Ra matched his eight feet in height, she faintly resented the fact that his wings, tail, and horns made him look notably bigger than her.

“Speak up, punk.” Catra snarled, beside her. She didn’t trust Hordak any further than he could throw her, which was a fair distance, but nevertheless a limited one. 

Thankfully, everyone in the room had the sense not to threaten Entrapta. She was standing beside Hordak, mask down and hair wrapped protectively around his torso. No matter how fast She-Ra was with her sword, any action towards Entrapta that was perceived as violent by Hordak would likely be met with swift and lethal retribution before anyone could stop him. 

Still, as Catra, Glimmer and She-Ra began questioning the two of them, it was Entrapta that Netossa kept the closest watch on. Hordak was predictable enough. She could guess how he might respond to most things. But Entrapta.....in Hordak’s presence, she was a wild card. Previously, Netossa had thought she’d be easy to defeat with her obvious weakness to an insatiable curiosity about tech and her strange reluctance to defend herself.   
Hordak was the one thing Entrapta loved more than tech, and Netossa didn’t want to think about what those constrictor-like stands of hair could do if she felt that his life was threatened. 

“How did you open a portal without my sword?” She-Ra asked Hordak.  
“Because we are no longer in Despondos, the sword is not necessary as a key.”

“What make you think that my mother survived being pulled into that portal?” Glimmer demanded, partly out of rage and partly out of curiosity. There was a tiny shred of hope in there, too, if she was being very honest.  
“Ooooh, ooh, can I answer this one?” Entrapta begged, flipping up her mask.   
“Uh....sure?” sighed Glimmer.  
“According to my files on her, Angella is an immortal angelic being with access to tremendous power! I never got round to questioning her about the nature of her existence, or how the whole immortality thing works....but Hordak and I hypothesized that if anyone could survive being trapped between dimensions, it would be her!” Entrapta blurted, her eyes aglow.

“And how do you propose that we get her out of there if that’s even where she is?” scowled Glimmer.  
Hordak and Entrapta exchanged glances. “According to our data,” said Hordak, “It is most probable that beings like She-ra and Melog would have the greatest chance of retrieving Angella successfully. The interdimensional Void is a large and peculiar place.”

“Mrow?” Melog inquired, as though to say, “Why me?”  
“Great, so once again Adora has to risk her life and be the hero.” Catra huffed. She-Ra quirked an eyebrow at her in sympathy. “I know you don’t like it, but I’m afraid it comes with the job description and I’d be very willing to risk my own life for Angella. She did it for us, remember?” Catra snorted, and stared at the floor, resentfully. She exchanged a look with Glimmer, who immediately knew what she was thinking.

“And just why do you think we should let you send She-Ra and Melog in there, and how do you know it’s safe for them?” Glimmer questioned.  
“She-Ra and Melog are beings of pure magic. In the Void, they will be the strongest of all of us. By its laws, the more magical a being is, the more powerful they are and the more likely they are to survive the absence of regular dimensional physics with no detriment to their wellbeing. Regular beings such as myself can survive the Void, and I have stepped into it and will do so again to demonstrate my confidence before anyone else is sent in. I would rescue Angella myself, of course, but I doubt that she would receive my presence positively or accept my aid.” Hordak explained. 

“Basically, Angella likes She-Ra and trusts her, and she and Melog are strong.” Entrapta summarised.

Glimmer paused, dumbfounded. Entrapta’s expression was one of genuine excitement and hope, and she could see no sign of deceit in Hordak’s fierce eyes. Come to think of it, she couldn’t recall an instance where either of them had openly lied to her.   
“Why...should I trust you?” she choked, holding back tears. The idea of her mother possibly being alive and alone in some awful interdimensional place....or the idea that all this might be a scam...or that Hordak and Entrapta were telling the truth but they were still wrong...it was too much to bear.

Tilting his head to one side and then the other, Hordak pondered the answer to her question. “Based on the statistical average intent and outcome of my previous actions towards you, there is not yet a strong reason for you to place our trust in me. I had hoped to alter that but...” he trailed off and flicked an ear in irritation at the impossibility of his situation. There was nothing for it. He would have to use emotion. Hordak hated emotion, hated feeling anything other than clearheaded decisiveness and confidence. Desperate times called for desperate measures, however, and he had a blade at his throat and an arrow at his back, so he swallowed and confessed. 

“During my last flight with Adora, we discussed your emotions towards your mother. I expressed my confusion regarding your ongoing resentment toward myself in particular for creating the portal that took your mother. I had understood that maternal figures were significant in Etheria, which is why I allowed Shadow-weaver to train Adora and Catra in the hopes that her bond with them might give them strength....” He paused and met Catra’s disbelieving gaze. “However, I underestimated the role of a good maternal figure in the upbringing of a child. I believed that parental figures were a form of authority, external validation, and guidance only. Adora explained to me that the emotional bond you shared with Angella, and the love that you felt for one another, were much more significant.” 

He glanced down at Entrapta, and exhaled before continuing. “Prior to meeting Entrapta, I had little understanding of the depth of connection that an emotional bond can create. I believed that I had lost her to Beast Island, and the despair I felt in that knowledge was greater than anything I thought I could experience. Though it serves no rational, practical purpose that I can discern.....I would let you kill me if I thought it would save her.” he said, looking down at She-Ra’s blade with tears in his eyes.

She-Ra lowered the sword, just a little, holding back tears of her own. She didn’t want to imagine what she’d sacrifice at the threat of losing Catra again. Once was enough. More than enough. 

“What I am attempting to express is that...” Hordak fought to keep his voice steady, “All my life, I sought the will of Horde Prime. I lived for him. My every breath and movement was to please him. I craved his approval more desperately than anything, and when he cast me aside I almost killed myself in despair when I awoke to find that I had survived the crash onto Etheria. I stayed my hand only because something compelled me to crawl out of the ship and live. Then I met the Scorpions, and war and desperate ambition broke my heart into pieces as the only friends I had ever known died in battle, one after another. I swore that I would forget all my friends and feelings. I would seek only the will and approval of Prime, and lose myself and my pain in that cause.”   
His ears were drooping.

“And then I met Entrapta. She saw all that I had I had become, how pathetic and weak and desperate I was. She saw my twisted plans, witnessed my wasted body, and my years of failure and rage. For some reason I cannot discern, she responded with compassion. I have never known this emotion before, but I believe that you call it love, and if love is what you feel for your mother, Glimmer...I can never live in peace until I know that I have tried my utmost to restore her to you.”

Glimmer’s eyes were wide, her face streaked with tears.

“Even if you can never forgive me, Glimmer,” Hordak said, softly, “know this: that I will not give up attempting to remedy the damage I caused.”

For a few moments, nobody dared to break the heavy silence that descended on the room. The only sound was the soft humming of the portal, and then Glimmer nodded and turned away.  
“You can let them go, now,” she said to She-Ra and Bow. They lowered their weapons and stepped away from Hordak and Entrapta.

Still facing away from them, Glimmer spoke quietly, but with dangerous authority.  
“Hordak and Entrapta, I give you my royal permission to continue your experimentation with the portal. We will make daily checks on your progress to ensure that your intentions are what they say they are and hear me when I saw this,” she turned toward them again, fists clenched and eyes aflame,   
“I can respect you if you really are looking for my mother. But know this: if you try anything suspicious, risk anyone’s life unnecessarily, or threaten Etheria in any way, I will never forgive you for this betrayal and I will make you wish you were dead.”

Hordak received this very calmly. He was well-accustomed to threats. “Understood. According to Entrapta’s estimates, the portal is already stable and we will be able to have ninety-eighth percentile confidence in our ability to hold it open for an indefinite period of time after another week of testing.”  
“Ninety-eight percent?” Bow said, questioningly.  
“It is the highest degree of confidence that we are able to attain. Nothing is ever certain when it comes to dealing with the laws of interdimensional space.” Hordak replied. 

“Sounds fine to me!” said She-Ra, with great bravado. Glimmer and Catra rolled their eyes.

***

After the princesses had left, Hordak finally let himself relax. That had not been an easy negotiation, however well he and Entrapta had prepared for it. He turned back to his work, troubled.

Entrapta caught his eye and understood. “We’re doing the right thing, Hordak,” she said, softly.

“I know. I did not lie to them, but we did not tell them the entire truth, either,” he answered.

“I don’t like it either. In general, I make it my personal mission to educate everyone as much as possible, but on this occasion, we are putting the people before the science and sometimes the science scares the people.” Entrapta said, patting his shoulder consolingly with her hair. 

“Fear is the most dangerous thing in the Void.” agreed Hordak.

"It's one of the most dangerous things in the universe," answered Entrapta, busying herself with adjustments to the Portal. They had an immortal, angelic being to save.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This "story" about Angella and the portal was previously one chapter, but it's so long that I split it in two. I couldn't resist having a go at rescuing Angella. Having her stuck between dimensions felt like the biggest unresolved plot-thread ever. The next bit is my favourite. I'll publish it tomorrow-ish; it's midnight and I'm exhausted.


	15. The Portal to Nowhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She-Ra and Melog step through the Portal to try and find Angella.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright folks, here we go. Hope you enjoy my take on what being trapped between dimensions would be like. This is the goriest chapter.   
> By the way, there is a truly atrocious pop-culture/meme reference in here. I make no apologies, but you have been warned.

Back at Brightmoon, Glimmer paced the halls and fretted. She did not sleep well that night, and the following morning, Micah noticed her bleary eyes.  
“Did you sleep alright, my dear? We had none of those weird 2 am disturbances last night.” he inquired, brow furrowed with concern.  
“Oh, it’s nothing.” lied Glimmer, suppressing a yawn. She couldn’t bring to tell her father the truth, just in case their hopes were dashed. He would be devastated. An idea occurred to her, suddenly. “Actually, it is something, but...it’s kind of silly.” she said.  
“If it matters to you, it matters to me,” said Micah.  
“Alright, then. I’ve been having dumb nightmares about Horde Prime. I know he’s dead, and I know he’s no more threatening than the monsters under the bed, but I still get scared sometimes.” This wasn’t entirely a lie, Glimmer told herself. She had been having the odd nightmare about Horde Prime, but then again, everyone did these days.  
“That’s nothing to be ashamed of!” said Micah, firmly. “We all have bad dreams sometimes, and Horde Prime really was terrifying. I’ll tell you what, Glimmer....how about I read you a bedtime story every night like I used to do when you were little and you couldn’t sleep?”  
“Dad, I......actually, you know what, I’d love that!” Glimmer laughed. She’d missed her father terribly, and she wasn’t going to waste an opportunity to make up for the time she’d lost with him. 

So, every night for the next week, Micah tucked Glimmer into bed and read her a story. Catra, Adora, and Bow all ended up joining them after a few days, and one night they all even fell asleep together in one big heap on Glimmer’s bed. It did help, Glimmer had to admit. Although she still visited Dryl daily and questioned Entrapta and Hordak obsessively, it comforted her to know that she did have a family to support her through anything. She was especially grateful for Bow’s kindness and reliability, and when things got really bad she’d distract herself by doing some planning for their upcoming wedding.

***

At last, after the longest week Glimmer had ever experienced, the day came when Entrapta confirmed that the portal was ready.   
Glimmer woke Bow, Catra, Adora, Melog, and Swiftwind bright and early the next morning, and they set off for Dryl. It was so useful being able to teleport them all together now, Glimmer thought to herself. She’d told her father that they’d be away for a day or two, doing another tour of Etheria, starting with Dryl, to make sure the clones were alright and settling in well. They’d already done this a few times before, so it was a believable enough excuse. Micah waved them off cheerfully before he set out for his morning ride on Opallie. 

Finnegan and Banoffee, two of the Dryl clones, were waiting for them when they arrived in the usual flurry of sparkles. They bowed elaborately to Glimmer, and said, in synchronicity, “Right this way, your majesty, and her esteemed friends.”  
Bow and Glimmer exchanged glances; they’d been having this issue with the Brightmoon clones, too. “No, no, you don’t need to bow to us!” said Glimmer, hurriedly as they walked into Dryl. “Our position of authority doesn’t mean we’re better than you. You deserve just as much respect as we do!”

“Then how are we to regard you?” asked Finnegan, tilting his head and rubbing one horn thoughtfully. His horns were slowly curling backward, like those of a mountain goat, and he had hung little teal blue tassels on the ends to match his hair.  
“Uhhhhhh....” said Bow, uncomfortably. The whole “monarchy” thing had always made him a little uncomfortable, and especially so now that he was about to marry into one.   
Glimmer and Adora conferred for a moment, with Catra, about what it meant to be a princess.

Eventually, Catra spoke up.   
“Glimmer and Adora are princesses, which means they have access to magical powers. This gives them a responsibility to protect others and use those powers for the good of Etheria.”  
“That’s right!” agreed Adora. “We didn’t do anything to deserve those magical powers. They were given to us at birth or bestowed by other beings. This makes us a lot stronger, but it doesn’t make us worth more than other people.”

“If you do not believe that you are better, then why do you have a position of authority?” asked the pink-haired Banoffee, whose horns had only just begun to sprout. He was very excited about this, and Finnegan had already made him a pair of pom-poms.

“Because it’s useful in times of trouble to have someone powerful in charge who can call the shots and take the lead,” said Glimmer, tiredly. This discussion always made her head hurt, but this time, a new thought had just occurred to her.  
“Hey Bow!” she said, brightening. “What if we had another form of leadership chosen by the people of the kingdoms? Each town or city could choose someone to represent them and their interests. They can come to us with their concerns, and we can form a kind of council!”  
“That’s a great idea!” enthused Bow. “That way, more people will be fairly represented and we can make better decisions for everyone.”  
“I can advocate for better rights for horses!” Swiftwind neighed, triumphantly. 

Finnegan and Banoffee exchanged confused glances. This idea certainly wasn’t something Horde Prime would have ever suggested, but the more they considered it, the more they liked it.  
“Could we have a representative for the clones?” Finnegan asked, hesitantly.  
“Of course! Why didn’t we think of that sooner? There’s so many of you, and you’re an entirely new species with your own valuable perspectives!” smiled Bow.

“Ugh. Politics. It’s so much easier to just shout and order people around.” said Catra, only half-joking.  
Adora caught her eye. “You and Melog could represent the cats of Etheria?” she teased.  
Catra liked this idea very much, and all seven of them laughed and chattered as they walked through the maze-like inner passages of Crypto Castle, the portal temporarily forgotten. 

***

The cheerful mood didn’t last long, however. A few minutes later, they arrived in the eerily lit-room where the portal was. It stood eight feet high and emitted a low, ominous hum. The portal itself was made of wraithlike, silvery plumes of something similar to smoke, suspended in a First One's crystal-studded frame.

“Here it is. The Portal to Nowhere,” said Hordak, stepping forward out of the gloom. Catra remembered the conversation they’d had about him liking to lurk in the shadows and she had to suppress a snort of laughter. Hordak noticed her amused expression and quirked an eyebrow. He knew exactly what she was thinking, and he was proud to be so dramatic.   
Someone he was even more proud of bounced up next to him: Entrapta, with a wrench in hand, giddy with excitement.   
“Hooray, you’re here! Okay, Hordak, shall we show ‘em what we’ve got?” 

Hordak smiled down at her, and then without any ceremony whatsoever, turned and walked straight through the portal. He vanished with a tiny pop, leaving everyone except Entrapta aghast. He reappeared again a minute later, none the worse for wear.   
“Very good, but we all know you’re freakishly strong and can breathe in weird atmospheres.” Glimmer answered, cynically.  
“Entrapta?” said Hordak, motioning to his lab partner with a theatrical sweep of one arm.

She fitted a large mask with many attachments of some kind over her mouth and nose and repeated the exercise with no issues.  
“The atmosphere in there can be variable, and although She-Ra and Melog don’t need consistent oxygen levels to breathe, we’ll send them in with these masks, just in case,” she explained.

Finally satisfied, Glimmer agreed to let She-Ra and Melog pass through the portal for a test run. Like Hordak and Entrapta, they went through and back again with no trouble.   
“The portal tickles!” giggled She-Ra.  
“Mrow-wah-wow!” said Melog, apparently pleased with himself.

“Ok then. I guess this is it. She-Ra, Melog do you accept this mission?” Glimmer asked.  
Both of them nodded.   
“Is there anything else we need to know, Entrapta?” She-Ra asked.

“Excellent question! I think Hordak will explain this one much better than I can. He’s spent a fair bit of time in interdimensional space.”

“Horde Prime used the Void as a kind of...spare dimension. It was useful when making extended leaps between galaxies, or on the rare occasions when he wanted to hide from someone.” Hordak explained.

“Horde Prime would never hide! Horde Prime is brave--” exclaimed Banoffee before Finnegan silenced him by very gently putting his hand over his mouth. “We have discussed this, brother. Horde Prime is dead and he lied to us many times about his power.”  
Banoffee’s ears drooped and his brow furrowed. “Yes, I remember now. Horde Prime deceived us.”

“We are free now, Banoffee and Finnegan,” Hordak said kindly, remembering to use their names, and then continued explaining the Void. “I myself helped Horde Prime make the jump into the Void many times during the time I was in his service. Using his memories and data from the ship, Entrapta and I were able to replicate some of his portal technology on a smaller scale. It’s very primitive compared to his, which was integrated into the fabric of his ships and could transport an entire fleet, but it’s stable and will suit our purposes.” he said with a dismissive gesture at the portal, which was the most technologically advanced thing any Etherian had ever seen. 

“No offense to your amazing work, Hordak, but I was kinda hoping to get more specific information about how we find Angella in there and what that big wall-thingy is?” She-Ra inquired.  
Hordak smiled. Adora’s single-mindedness was the real reason he’d chosen her for this mission.   
“That space you entered recently was not the Void. It is a kind of sub-dimension called Nowhere. To get to Angella, you must step through that wall you saw in the distance and turn left as you step.”

“Left?” She-Ra exclaimed, perplexed. “Why do I have to turn left?”

“If you walk straight through you will arrive in Unreality. It is an extremely disconcerting experience and I would not recommend it. Turn to the right, and you will arrive in a place where you will become crushingly aware of your own existence and the responsibilities which that entails, along with the futility of life and the cosmic insignificance of one single being. We called it “Earth” because the creatures that live there will, inevitably, sit down in the dirt and cry at some point in their lives.”  
Hordak explained, a little irritably. He still wasn’t used to being questioned. 

“That sounds terrible. I won’t do that, then!”

“Excellent. Step through and think “left” and you will arrive in the Void. Angella will be on the other side; I cannot tell where, but it will not be hard to find her. There is very little of any substance in the Void, so she will be easy to spot from a great distance and it is unlikely that she will have strayed far from the Wall. When you find her, lead her back through the way you came.” 

“Any other questions?” chirped Entrapta.  
“Nope! Sounds fine to me.” She-Ra shrugged. “You ready to go, Melog?”  
“Maow!” responded the shape-shifter cat. 

They took the masks Entrapta offered them, and went to walk towards the Portal.  
“Wait!” cried Glimmer. “Is there any way we can contact them while they’re in there?”  
“No.,” said Entrapta. “We tried every kind of signal we could, and nothing gets through.”

“Don’t worry, Glimmer!” consoled She-Ra, hugging the very nervous Catra. “I’m sure it’ll be fine!”  
Pulling the mask up over her face, She-Ra hung Melog’s one around their neck, then together, they stepped through the Portal to Nowhere.

***

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Catra said to Hordak after they had disappeared through the smoky surface of the portal.  
“It is safer for them than it is for any other being in this world. If they remain calm and focussed, their chances of success are excellent,” said Hordak. He chose every word carefully and meant each one sincerely. He could not tell Catra half-truths.   
She snarled. “Careful, Hordak. You know I can take you out, and if you give me any reason to believe that you’ve risked MY Adora’s life unnecessarily, I will show no mercy.”

Hordak met her gaze steadily, and inhaled deeply, curbing the instinctive aggression that rose up in his chest. “Catra. Do you think that I would risk the little trust I have built up with the Princesses, and the life of someone who destroyed Horde Prime’s mind, without reason? I am staking my own life against the success of this mission.”  
Catra nodded. She knew that nothing was ever truly safe, that Hordak and Entrapta had run extensive tests, and She-Ra could hold her own against almost anything, especially with Melog at her side. She just wished it didn’t have to be her Adora that carried She-Ra’s mantle. 

***

Cautiously, She-Ra pulled her mask down to hang around her neck and took a shallow breath.   
“Huh. It’s fine! Nice of Hordak and Entrapta to take precautions, though!” she remarked to Melog.  
She was relieved to not have to wear the mask. It was quite bulky and obstructed her vision. Still, having it there was oddly comforting and symbolic of the care her friends had for her wellbeing. 

She looked ahead to the Wall in the distance. There was literally nothing else to look at here, other than all-consuming darkness. Unbeknownst to her, the Wall was actually the fabric of Spacetime itself. It rose like a great wave, smooth as glass and shimmering opaquely with many colours that shifted and flowed as they walked towards it. They reached it after what seemed like both ten minutes and ten seconds, but She-Ra chose not to dwell on that. She surveyed the wall’s almost liquid surface for a moment.   
“Hordak said not to overthink this, so....Melog, can you understand left and right?” she asked, raising first one hand and then the other.  
“Mrow,” said Melog, raising their left paw to indicate that they understood perfectly.   
“Great! Follow me, and when you walk through, turn left, alright?”   
“Maow!”  
Taking a deep breath of the air that wasn’t there, She-Ra gripped her sword firmly, stepped through the fabric of Spacetime, and turned left into the Void. 

They emerged on the other side, blinking uncertainly in the bright white light of absolute nothingness.  
She-Ra didn’t even question why there was light on this side and darkness on the other. It was just what she expected, so she glanced down at Melog to check that they were alright, and strode off in the general direction of Over There despite the complete absence of gravity.

After some vague period of time, Melog gave a questioning "mrrr?" to indicate that they could see something far off in the distance. She-Ra squinted hard and thought she could see a small speck.  
“Well, that’s a good start!” she said cheerfully and ran towards it with Melog bounding at her side.

The speck resolved into a dot, then a kind of pastel-shaded blob, and then! Joy of joys! It was Angella, hovering midair with wings outstretched.   
“Angella, Angella, it’s me! She-Ra!” Adora called, almost crying with relief as they came within earshot.

Angella opened her eyes and gasped in disbelief, then swooped down to embrace She-Ra.  
“Adora! Oh, how glad I am to see you. I thought I’d never get out of here. And who is this lovely creature?” she asked, peering at Melog.  
“That’s Melog, our magic-shapeshifting-cat-thing! We found them in space and they’re very nice,” explained She-Ra.  
“What a beautiful kitty you are! Yes, look at you! Magnificent!” cooed Angella, tickling the delighted Melog behind the ears. 

“Alright then! Let’s get you out of here,” said She-Ra. She wasn’t a fan of small talk in interdimensional voids. The catchups could wait until they were back home.   
“Where’s out?” said Angella. She had looked well enough at first glance, but as She-Ra looked at her more closely, she could see a strangely hunted look in her eyes. She chose not to question it.  
“Follow me!” she said instead, with forced merriment, and turned back in the direction of the wall which was there in the distance just as she’d expected. Because she’d expected it.

Angella followed her without question, noticing the confident way she and Melog walked, as though their feet really did meet a perfectly level surface. They had no idea what the Void was. None at all and that was protecting them. Angella forced her mind to focus only on She-Ra, on her hair, on the details of her outfit. She’d survived here by training herself to focus on the sensation of breathing alone, and she counted her breaths as they ran. Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine....her vision flickered. No. No. Forty. Forty-one. Forty-two was ragged and sharp, and then she was on her knees, her head in her hands. She-Ra was at her side in an instant with Melog close behind. “Angella! Are you ok? Are you hurt?”

“No, no it’s fine it’s just-” another spasm, another flash of black. She could see them all now, so many of them. They were coming, and she could not keep them out.  
“I’m so sorry, Adora,” she whispered, tiredly. “I can’t ignore them anymore.”

Them. She-Ra was gripped by the coldest bolt of pure horror she’d ever felt. Her head spun, and all around the Void de-cloaked and revealed what it truly was. It wasn’t any colour she could describe, except that it was a dark one, and it was full of floating debris. She-Ra blinked and saw a swarm of golden butterflies, chased by something with too many eyes and teeth in all the wrong places. Something screamed in the distance, and overhead, a hideous black substance roiled like a nebula of horrors. She-Ra gasped. She could not breathe, she could not breathe, there was no air. Her eyes crossed and her head throbbed and she staggered and fell. 

Angella caught her, held her close and looked into her eyes. “Adora, look at me. Look at me as though I am the only thing in the universe. Breathe. You can breathe.”  
She-Ra did as she was told and slowly, her vision cleared and her lungs filled. Melog headbutted her leg, worriedly. As a shape-shifting cat, Melog was used to seeing things that weren’t there, things that changed shape all the time and behaved in odd ways. This place made them uncomfortable, but they were much too concerned about She-Ra and this new winged person to care about anything else. That was the key advantage of being catlike. One only had a very limited number of cares to give, and once those were allocated, most other concerns in the world faded into nothing. 

After a few moments, Angella and She-Ra were able to stand again.   
“What....is this place?” gasped She-Ra, staring very determinedly at her boots and nothing else.  
“It’s the Void,” said Angella, calmly. “It’s a lawless place; the true garbage dump of all universes. Things here behave roughly the way you expect them to, which is why you couldn’t see any of it until you questioned what you were seeing. There are all kinds of messes in here: monsters, butterflies, wrecked spaceships, Eldritch horrors, winged toasters, the gods of collapsed universes....all sorts, mostly bad.”

She-Ra didn’t know what a toaster was, or an Eldritch horror, and she didn’t want to know either.  
“Okay. Okay. So, I know the way out, and you know how to survive these things?”

“Correct,” said Angella. “We’ll keep going, but first we have to deal with the thing above us. She-Ra had been steadfastly trying to ignore the odd clicking sound she thought she could hear, and the black goo that was dripping from above. She went to look up, but Angella grabbed her face and turned it towards her. “Don’t look at it directly. It gives it more power,” she whispered.   
“How do I fight something I can’t look at?” protested She-Ra. “And what about Melog?”  
Melog was staring up at the thing, whatever it was, with an expression of general disgust.

“Oh, Melog will be fine. They don’t care, as long as we’re alright. As for you, just glance at it out of the corner of your eye. You only need to see it just enough to aim. Hit it as hard as you can with as many magical blasts as possible, and make sure you direct the magic with your mind. Think about where you want it to go, and what you want it to do. You’ll be fine!” replied Angella, taking off and firing a huge ball of light above her. The thing shrieked, and more black goo dripped down.   
“Oh, She-Ra?” Angella called back, ducking under a barbed tentacle that came her way, and slicing through it with a beam of pure light, “by the way, there isn’t really gravity here, so you and Melog can fly too!”

She-Ra’s feet left the ground, which had never been there, as soon as she heard this, and she leaped upwards alongside Melog. Turning her head slightly to gauge the position of whatever hideous monstrosity this was, she aimed her sword and fired. The first beam was weak, and bounced off, but after that She-Ra focussed her mind on the magic, on its direction, on how it would slice and burn. Success. Another, unearthly shriek, and the monster lashed out at her with one tentacle. Melog bit down hard on it, and snarled, while She Ra cut through it. She looked too close for a moment, and her eyes burned and her head throbbed as she was suddenly, acutely aware of how mind-numbingly big this thing was. She had to stare at her boots again for a moment.

“Focus!” cried Angella. “We’ll all strike together, this time!” Her hands were filled with searing light, Melog’s teeth were bared and dripping with venom, and She-Ra’s sword radiated tremendous energy.  
They struck as one, bearing down on a fleshy, lumpen wall of eyes and tentacles and carved a tremendous gash in it. Now convinced that there was surely an easier meal somewhere else, the creature shied away and was gone in seconds.

She-Ra watched in rapt fascination as the spatters of burning black goo on her skin steamed, shrank and disappeared. She grinned and flexed her shoulders. “Alright! Go team!” she called to Angella as she swooped over with Melog bounding behind in great, curving leaps through the not-air.

“Not bad for your first Eldritch horror!” Angella smiled. “Now! Onwards! We’ll meet more of them as we go, but if you focus on one at a time, the others effectively don’t exist until they have your attention. Try to tell yourself that there are no monsters.”  
She-Ra nodded, raised her sword, and took off.

“There are no monsters,” she whispered through gritted teeth as she cut through a mass of spines and goop.  
“THERE ARE NO MONSTERS!” she screamed as the face of the being before she split open like a toothed, slimy flower, and she plunged her sword into its throat.  
“There are....no monsters.” she gasped as a huge, barbed tail slammed into her back and sent her flying.  
Together, they hacked and bit and clawed and threw and jumped and flew and blasted and ran through a sea of monsters.

***

High above the kingdom of Dryl, Micah awoke on Opallie’s back to the steady swoosh-swoosh-swoosh of her wings. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and stretched. “I must have...dozed off in the morning sun!” he said through a yawn.  
Opallie glanced back to indicate that she had heard him.  
“Good. Awake now. We are almost at Crypto Castle.”  
“Crypto Castle!” exclaimed Micah, in surprise. He hadn’t intended to fly this far, but he supposed that now they were here, there was no harm in checking in on Glimmer....  
“We must go. Down. Something strange is happening in there. Bad. I feel it in my chest.” Opallie rumbled, urgently.  
Micah hadn’t known her very long, but he knew Opallie’s instincts were seldom wrong, and he could feel something peculiar about the air the closer they got to the castle. Something was Wrong.

They landed minutes later in the castle courtyard, and Micah scrambled off Opallie’s back with only a quick pat on her neck as a farewell.  
With some directions from Banoffee, he found his way to the laboratory in short order. He jogged through the door with a spell at the ready in his hand and saw--  
Was that--  
a portal?  
Surely not – but yes, it was!  
“Oh sh*t,” he swore and fainted in Hordak’s arms.  
Hordak laid him down gently and sighed. He’d probably get shouted at, later. Again. 

***

Now covered head to foot in gore, She-Ra gasped for breath as she took refuge on a large chunk of floating debris. Angella and Melog finished chasing off the many-armed thing that had most recently been haranguing them and came to join her. All around them hung the wreckage of a vast ship – a Horde Ship! - She-Ra suddenly realised, recognising the insignia on its caved-in sides. Was that the body of a clone she could see over there?   
She headed toward it without a word and checked for any signs of life. There was a very faint heartbeat, so she slung the clone over her shoulder and carried on. She figured that she only needed one arm to swing a sword, anyway, since this fight was more about what you believed than brute force. She could see a serpentine shadow looming out of the debris field ahead, and went back to get Angella and Melog.

Angella’s jaw dropped when she saw the clone. “Isn’t that thing like Hordak?” she asked, horrified.   
“Yeah, since we won the war – oh, did I mention that we won, months ago – Hordak isn’t really a big problem anymore. Actually, he’s quite helpful....and these Horde clones are very nice once you get to know them and they aren’t mind-controlled by a raving lunatic anymore.” She-Ra answered, hacking off one of the serpent’s many tongues while Melog bit it on the nose. 

The next monster had more legs than anything had the right to, and the one after that roared backward if that was even possible. She-Ra looked up, breathing hard after plunging her sword into what she hoped was something’s head, avoiding the flailing, jointed limbs around its mouth, and saw the wall. It was close now. Almost there. 

The beast beneath her boots convulsed and another head came shrieking up towards her until Angella blinded it with a ball of light straight to the face.   
“We’re so close, Angella!” She-Ra called encouragingly. “Just a little further, and you’ll be back home with Glimmer and there will be peace!”

Peace. Angella smiled. Peace! Her eyes snapped open wide. “Adora, how long have I been gone?”  
“About a year, I guess?” said She-Ra, busy stabbing yet another head in the eye.  
“A year? Adora, it felt like weeks! Surely it can’t have been that long?”  
Somewhere in the distance, a creature both ancient and horrible stirred, wakened by the dissonance in timelines in Angella’s mind. It snarled and set out to hunt. 

***

Hordak felt the creature’s presence from outside the portal and a feeling of absolute dread ran down his spine. He knew that feeling. The Time-Eater. He’d been hoping, desperately, that nothing would wake it. It was the only creature in the Void that not even She-Ra could defeat. He grabbed a mask, Emily, and a small data chip. “Entrapta, I have to go. It’s the Time-Eater.” He dove through the portal, wings already half unfurled.

“What’s a Time Eater?” asked Catra, with a rising note of panic in her voice.   
“I don’t know, but if Hordak hasn’t told me about it and he’s going in there because of it, it must be a very serious, statistically improbable occurrence!”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT STATISTICS! I don’t even know what they ARE!” yelled Glimmer. “All I want to know is if my friends and my mother are in there surrounded by monsters, and why you and Hordak decided not to tell us anything about them!”

Entrapta grimaced. “There are lots of monsters in the Void. Other things, too, but mainly monsters....they only appear when you know they’re there and they’re attracted to fear. That’s why we chose not to say anything. It was safer that way. She-Ra must have gotten a long way without disturbing anything too major, and if the relativistic effects are visible from outside the portal” she waved at a clock which was spinning backward and then forwards, “then this Time-Eater thing she’s woken up must be pretty big!”  
“Not helping, Entrapta!” Bow said through gritted teeth, as he tried to stop a snarling Catra from hurling herself into the portal.  
Swiftwind was trotting on the spot, tail switching in agitation. “We have to do something!”

“There’s nothing we can do,” said Entrapta, gently. “The more people that are in there, aware of what’s in the Void, the worse it will get. Hordak seemed to know exactly how to handle the Time Eater, and I’m sure he’ll get them out.”  
“Amazing! Spectacular! Wonderful!” muttered Glimmer. “We’re now dependent on Hordak to rescue my mother and one of my best friends and our magic cat. Do you remember that thing I said earlier about what I’d do to you if you risked anyone’s life unnecessarily?”  
“Hey, stop that Glimmer!” Entrapta said, sharply. “Hordak and I haven’t slept properly in WEEKS because we’ve been trying to make this thing so we can rescue your mom! And do you really believe that I’m so socially inept that I don’t care about what happens to Adora and Melog? I know the feelings you have are big and overwhelming but you’ve gotta stop lashing out at other people every time you feel scared! Sometimes bad things do happen, and sometimes there is nothing you personally can do.”

“How is that supposed to make her feel better?” snapped Catra.

“It’s not. It’s just true, and part of science and life is dealing with what is true constructively, rather than making optimistic claims with no real basis. Now, if you’ll stop panicking, I need to focus. I have to be ready to close the Portal as soon as everyone is through, in case something tries to follow them.”

***

Inside the Portal, things were not presently Ok. Hordak beat his wings as hard as he could, sucking in as much as his lungs could take and telling himself it was air. Breathe. You can breathe, Hordak.   
He accelerated up to the Wall and dove through it, making a sharp turn to the left as he went.   
As soon as he reached the other side, he paused to hover and take his bearings. Where were they?

He willed himself to see them, to find them amid the nightmarish flotsam of the Void. They were somewhere close, and so was the Time Eater. 

Ah. There it was. He could see it a little way off, the darkening stain of its gigantic, many-limbed body twisting through the Void like a storm on the move, its toothsome maw already agape. Around it, energy crackled like lightning, and smaller Eldritch horrors in its path were being pulled in. It was so big that it had its own gravity, or so it believed. That was the important part. The belief. For as long as it had existed – and it had existed for a very, very long time – the Time Eater had been absolutely sure that it was the biggest, baddest thing out there. Time defeated everything eventually, and when you ate Time, well, what was there to fear? The fact that it now existed in a timeless interdimensional void made very little difference to the Time Eater. It had been around for so long that it neither cared nor knew about anything other than its own existence, its eternal hunger, and the presence of other, smaller things to suck time out of. 

Hordak had a plan to change that. He looked at the big round bot in his arms, and she beeped cheerfully at him. One of the chief advantages of flying in the Void was that any objects you carried could be as light or as heavy as you believed them to be. He’d decided that Emily weighed only a few kilograms and wasn’t difficult to hold onto. Setting her down, Hordak held up the chip and looked into her one glowing visual sensory port. “Emily, I want you to plug this chip into yourself. When I tell you to, I want you to play it as loud as possible. Additionally, turn your internal clock on.”

“Beep-breeeeoooo!” said Emily, importantly, and took the chip.

“Very good,” said Hordak, picking her back up. He took off again, flying so fast that he though his wings were going to dislocate. 

*** 

Adora, Melog, and Angella felt the Time-Eater approach before they saw it—not that it was hard to see, given its size – because they so badly did not want to look at whatever rumbled and roared like a hurricane and made them feel like their memories were being sucked out through their ears.  
Angella spread her wings and pushed them all, unconscious clone included, towards a piece of the ship to shield them from the small pieces of debris kicked up by its turbulent passage. 

“This...is bigger than anything I’ve ever seen,” said Angella, unable to avert her eyes anymore as the multiheaded creature they had just been fighting fled toward them, shrieking in fear. Inexorably, its progress was slowed by the pull of the Time Eater, and it was dragged backward, writhing, into an open maw lit with lightning.   
It swallowed and swung its wedge-shaped head about, searching for more to devour. One of its tenebrous limbs swung right past their hiding place. Though it was eyeless, it could feel their fear and taste the decades of memories in their fragile minds. Where were they? Where? 

It was at that moment that Hordak descended upon it from high above, wings folded tight and falling like an arrow. The Time Eater paused in its searching and turned its awful face skywards, not that there was a sky here or any real direction in which to orient oneself. As its jaws opened wide to roar again, Hordak dropped Emily and bellowed, “Go! Emily, play Despacito!”  
Emily shrilled defiantly as she fell, and the first, twanging notes of the guitar intro sounded as she reached the Time Eater’s mouth. She didn’t know what it was, nor did she care. As far as she was concerned, it was yet another monster like the ones on Etheria, and she was going to kick its ass. 

“Come on over in my direction  
So thankful for that, it's such a blessin', yeah”

Nobody picked on her friends, thought Emily as she passed through endless rows of teeth. Nobody. Not even this punk-ass excuse for an Eldritch being. She’d show it the meaning of fear.

Got me feelin' some kind of way  
Make me wanna savour every moment slowly, slowly...

The Time Eater snapped its jaws shut, swallowed, and pondered. It hadn’t had anything voluntarily thrown to it in millennia, but it wasn’t going to complain. As Emily was sucked down its vast gullet, it thought it recognised the melody of the song she was playing with her little inbuilt speakers. Where had it encountered it before?

Tu eres el iman y soy al metal  
Me voy acercando y voy armando el plan.....

No. Oh, surely not. Anything but that sound. The Time Eater had wandered through many universes, devouring anything in its path, but even it had memories it wanted to erase. The experiences attached to this song were the worst it had had in 50 billion years.

DES-PA-CITO!

It shrieked in agony and tried to probe into Emily’s digital memories, to pull her to shreds and make it stop. It had destroyed many an AI before, but this one was particularly stubborn. As its inner tendrils rummaged through Emily’s innards, they came to something they’d found in many bots: a clock. But this one was different: it was flashing, ZERO, ZERO, ZERO. What? Surely that was incorrect. The Time Eater reached out with its mind, probing around it to find a reference for spacetime, but there was none. There was no spacetime. It was the Time Eater. Where was it? How did it get here?  
As every assumption it had made in the Void disintegrated and its mind peeled open, so did its body.  
Angella, Melog and She-Ra watched in disbelief as it dissipated into a nebulous cloud of black particles that swirled inwards and vanished with a pop.

Hordak swooped down towards them, caught Emily as she fell from where the Time Eater had been and landed very neatly. When one understood Void physics, one could afford to be dramatic. Besides, with his own impending doom this close, he might as well enjoy himself while he still could. Angella had seen twenty years of war because of him, and she would doubtless be less merciful than her daughter.

She-Ra waved as he landed. “Hordak, that was amazing! How did you--”  
“HORDAK?” yelled Angella. She had one remaining nerve, and it was getting very frayed. “This....is Hordak? The one who was our sworn enemy?”  
“The very same one,” said Hordak, bowing elegantly. “But I am no longer your enemy”.

Or, that’s what he would have said if Angella hadn’t launched herself at him and slammed him into the ground. “HOW DARE YOU COME NEAR ME!” she shrieked, casting a buzzing ball of magic that hovered dangerously close to his face.   
Emily beeped frantically in distress at this sudden threat to her friend.  
“Emily, no. Put the gun away.” Hordak said, surprisingly calmly. He put his hands up and hated it immediately. He wanted to bare his teeth and growl, even if it got him killed. His wings were strong, his tail was lashing, and he was sure he could easily knock Angella off balance. No, no. He could not. He had to act like he was harmless. Gah.

“Angella, in time I will explain everything. But as you have recently observed, this Void is filled with many malevolent beings. We must lay our differences aside if we are to escape in time.” His point was punctuated by more, distant roaring.  
“Angella, he’s right. We have to go!” She-Ra insisted.   
“Adora, this is Hordak!”  
“NOW!” She-Ra yelled, slicing off a tentacle that had appeared from above. The creatures of the Void were always hungry, and with the Time Eater gone, they were much bolder.  
“Alright, but he can carry that thing!” said Angella, gesturing at the unconscious clone beside them.  
Hordak peered at its face curiously, then slung it over his shoulder, picked up Emily, and took off. Angella followed close behind. There would be time for questions later. Here, time literally did not exist and never had. 

One hundred metres to the Wall. Two monsters came at them from opposite directions, and She-Ra dove out the way at the last minute so that they collided with all the force of two speeding trains.  
Fifty metres to the wall. A squid with a thousand eyes snatched Hordak out of the air, forcing him to drop Emily and the clone. He bit down hard on its tentacle, which did nothing, but She-Ra’s sword that sliced through a second later certainly had an effect. They grinned at each other before plunging down after Emily, who had caught the clone as he fell and was beeping defiantly at the squid as she hurtled past its head.   
Twenty metres. Ten. Angella blinded something with long legs that bent the wrong way.  
“TURN RIGHT!” bellowed Hordak as they approached the Wall, hotly pursued by a swarm of locusts with human faces. They turned as one, and the locusts got stuck in the wall, buzzing uselessly.

Hordak looked behind them as soon as they were through. “I believe that Void-beings cannot follow us through, however, it is imperative that we keep moving.”   
She-Ra nodded, and kept running, carrying the clone. She was bleeding from multiple lacerations to her chest and face. Eldritch beings were, unfortunately, a fairly close match for her power. Beside her, Angella was gasping and her wings were faltering.  
“Just a little further!” she yelled, encouragingly, and Angella gave her a watery smile.

Melog looked over their shoulder as they ran. They could sense something behind them, something big.  
Sure enough, a creature leaped out of the wall. It looked exactly like a leopard, but it was five metres tall and its face was made entirely from barbed tentacles.   
“MAAAAOW!” said Melog in alarm, urging the exhausted group onwards. 

Black spots were forming in Hordak’s vision and his wings ached as he drew from the last of his strength. The Void was no place for mortal, organic beings and the sheer mental energy it was taking for him to exist here was taking its toll. Carrying Emily was exhausting, not because she actually weighed anything here, but because he had to project the weight she needed to be in his mind. The black spots grew larger and he lost his grip on her for a moment. She slipped, and he caught her again but forgot about her weight and she dragged him downwards, towards the Eldritch leopard which was rapidly gaining on them. It roared, and jumped for him, the tentacles on its face flaring open.

***

Catra heard the roar from beyond the portal, and before anyone could stop her, she dove through. Enough was enough.   
Her lungs burned instantly and she coughed and fought for breath, but then she saw She-Ra, running towards her, bleeding out her life, and forgot her own pain. Behind her, the Eldritch leopard had Hordak pinned down, with Melog pawing ineffectively at its face, and he screamed as its claws dug into his wing joints. She-Ra turned back towards the sound, with Catra already at her side. “Hordak!” she yelled, but Angella and Catra were pulling her back.   
“Leave him! He deserves this.”Angella said. 

Catra glared at her. “He just saved your life, you miserable, pretentious, angel-bitch!” Turning to She-Ra, she ignored Angella’s indignant gasp. “Go. You don’t always have to be the hero. Melog and I will take care of this leopard-thing.”  
“Catra, I--”  
“I said go! Adora, why do you have to be such an idiot?” Catra said, pushing her towards the portal and running towards Melog and Hordak.   
She-Ra stared helplessly after her, then grabbed Angella’s hand, shouldered the clone again, and did what she was told. 

Catra leaped astride Emily en route. “You ready to blow that things head off?” she said to the enraged bot as she skittered onwards, faster than she ever had before.  
“Breee-ooo-eep!” she replied, very menacingly as she pulled out a particularly large laser cannon which technically couldn’t have fitted inside her. 

Emily fired at the leopard’s chest as they reached it, and Catra went for its face as it staggered from the force of the blast. It had several tentacles around Hordak’s throat, and astride its neck, Catra sliced them off with a few swipes of her claws. It screeched and reared, dropping Hordak and throwing Catra off. She landed neatly on her feet and smiled, viciously. “Emily, you’ve got a clear shot. Fire away!”

Without hesitation, Emily aimed her plasma cannon directly at the Eldritch leopard’s throat and fired. Its head exploded like a can of spaghetti in a microwave, sending chunks of slimy tentacles in every direction. The beast swayed on its feet and collapsed in a convulsing, bloody heap. 

“That’s what you get for not being a proper cat!” said Catra, flicking a squirming bit of gore off her arm. She and Emily hurried over to Hordak, who was thankfully sitting upright, but not in good shape at all. Huge purple blotches marked his face and neck, and his wings were bleeding and torn. Catra helped him to his feet, and between her and Emily they supported him as they staggered toward the Portal, following the trail of She-Ra’s blood. 

They fell rather than walked through the Portal, and found a weeping Angella embracing Micah and Glimmer. Everyone was, in fact, weeping in various states of joy, exhaustion, and pain. She-Ra was lying on the floor while Bow tried to staunch the blood flow from her wounds, and Catra scrambled towards her as soon as her feet hit the ground. Entrapta came hurrying toward them to scoop Hordak up in her hair, looking almost physically sick with worry.   
“Hordak! Are you okay?” she cried, cupping his bleeding face in her hands. He blinked wearily up at her. “Yes, I will survive and be in acceptable health presently,” he said, and promptly blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go! Glimmer has both parents again :) They're so cute as a family! How good!
> 
> Hordak and She-Ra are pretty torn-up, but that's what happens when you fight Eldritch beings and they'll be ok. Probably. Eventually.  
> I felt that them being self-sacrificial morons would be perfectly in line with their personalities, for different reasons. Adora, as we know, has a compulsive need to save everybody and fix everyone's problems and hurl herself into the jaws of death to save her friends. Bless her. She's a Good Idiot.  
> Hordak spent several decades trying to please (one) person: Horde Prime. That bastard. So, I really believe that post-war, Hordak would be desperately searching for some other Cause to dedicate himself to, and he might plausibly become obsessed with redeeming himself in the eyes of the Princesses. After all, that's what he did with Horde Prime!  
> Both Hordak and Adora have been conditioned, by war, and through a cycle of abuse, to have a compulsive need to please someone. I love them both!
> 
> And now, I must confess my Sin: I killed the Boss monster with the power of Despacito. I am not sorry. 
> 
> Bonus feature: Politics and Democracy. And clones! With accessories!


	16. Everything Has Changed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literally just some wholesome fluff. Enjoy.

Hordak surfaced through layers of swirling consciousness, smattered with stabs of pain and colour. Entrapta's worried voice calling his name brought him round.  
He woke to a kind of tingling sensation in his chest and saw that She-Ra was kneeling beside him with one hand over his heart, eyes closed as she focussed on healing him. The warm, invigorating power flowing into him reminded him of the mulled wine Entrapta’s kitchen staff made for him sometimes when he was feeling cold and tired.

As he watched, his wounds sealed over and a few holes in his wings vanished. Strangely, the power seemed to flow backward into She-Ra as well: the slash marks on her face faded and the bleeding from her chest stopped. She breathed out a long, slow breath and de-transformed. Catra was right behind her to catch her as she slumped, exhausted. Melog licked the end of her nose, worriedly.

“Hey, Catra.” Adora grinned, dazedly, after a moment's silence. “Did Hordak tell you why he sent me into the Void?” Catra smiled back at her and exchanged an amused look with Hordak.

He had to fight the urge to chuckle at this and it took some thought for him to find the right words.  
“The Void is a curious and hostile place. Because it exists between dimensions, the only laws of physics that apply are the ones you actively believe in. This makes it largely impossible for inquisitive minds to persist for long there before they question their own existence and collapse inwards. Adora’s...focus and singlemindedness protected her from this.”

“Ha!” Catra laughed. “So basically you’re saying you sent Adora because she’s too much of an idiot to question anything?”

“Well, Catra,” Adora countered smugly, “in this case me being an idiot was essential to the safety of Brightmoon royalty!”

“I did not say that Adora was an idiot. She has a different kind of intelligence, but she is not an idiot.”

“Exactly!” Entrapta affirmed, to Catra’s mild irritation and Adora’s amusement. “I’m a great scientist because I’m curious about everything and can make or fix almost anything. I’ve got logical-mathematical intelligence and good spatial intelligence too. Hordak is similar but less curious and much more focussed!” Hordak chuckled gently at this.

“Adora, you have great tactical intelligence and interpersonal skills. You’re a practical, hands-on leader who understands how to encourage people and coordinate a team mission. I could never do that! Catra, you’re cunning and you’re good at strategic intelligence. You have interpersonal intelligence as well, but you use it in a completely different way to Adora. This makes you a lethal fighter and a powerful military commander. All of us are different, and understanding and respecting those differences is essential to our friendship!”

“Wow, that’s some....pretty specific personality analysis you’ve done,” said Catra, impressed and ever so slightly creeped out.

“Thank you. In an effort to have better interpersonal skills, I keep detailed notes on all my friends in this file right here!” Entrapta held up her compad and scrolled through a list of names and smiling faces. “It helps me understand you better since I’m not very good at the whole people-skills thing.”  
“I’d say that makes you very good at the people-skills thing, actually!” said Adora, contemplatively. “You might not be a natural at it, but the amount of effort you’re putting into it is amazing, and we really appreciate it!”

"Thanks! I do still feel kinda bad that we sent you in there and you got so beaten up, but we really couldn't think of any other way to do it."

"I've gotta admit, that place was nasty." Catra shuddered. "It felt like my brain was being pulled into little bits every time I looked around, and I was only in there for a few minutes!"

"It is disconcerting, and the cognitive dissonance adds to the experience. I dread to think about what has happened to my unconscious brother there, after spending such an extensive period in that place. " Hordak agreed, nodding towards the clone stretched out nearby, dead still except for the slight rise and fall of his chest.

"Hah! Now that's an understatement and a half." smirked Catra.

"I hope he's...ok?" ventured Adora, looking concerned. "Thank you, Hordak. You made the right choice, sending me and Melog. I wasn't sure I trusted you, but after seeing what happened as soon as I started questioning what I saw, I understand why you were a bit evasive and vague." Adora said.

Hordak bit his lip and stared at the floor, unsure how to respond, but Entrapta nodded and spoke for him. "We wanted to save Angella, but we also wanted to protect you! I have so many questions for you about what you saw in there...you must have seen phenomena that defied conventional physics!" Her eyes were full of greedy curiosity, but she caught the exhausted expression on She-Ra's face and Catra's slight frown.  
"-but that can wait for another time when you haven't just been fighting monsters."

"Sure thing, Entrapta. I'll tell you everything you want to know, maybe in a few weeks....it might actually help me to process the horrible things I saw!" Adora smiled, tiredly.  
"Ooooh, fantastic! I'll supply the tiny food! It's a date!"

Behind him, Hordak heard soft footsteps approaching, and glanced up to see Angella coming towards them. She looked intensely conflicted, and Hordak tensed instinctively and tried to sit up, but his muscles wouldn't obey him. Angella did nothing, for a moment. She just stood at his side, fists clenched and eyes brimming with tears as she looked down at him.

After a very, very long minute, she spoke in a tight, small voice. "Thank you Hordak, thank you. I don't know why you did that, but thank you. The last time I saw you, you were trying to kill me and everyone I loved. I don't understand who or what on Etheria made you change, but you just risked your life to save me, and even though I feel like maybe I'm still stuck in there and hallucinating something....just in case this is real, thank you."

Hordak smiled a little at this, and with great effort, managed to sit up. Angella stared. She'd never seen him smile before. 

"Angella, two things have changed in my life since you saw me last. The first is that I now know that almost everything I believed about myself, my purpose, and the meaning of life, was wrong. However, that is not the primary cause of my shift in behaviour. The missing data was understanding how it felt to be loved by someone, and love them in return. That changed everything."

***

Hordak passed in and out of consciousness, after that. He remembered Micah's smiling, tear-stained face as he helped lift him onto Opallie, and whispered: "Thank you, thank you."

He remembered being carried to his hut, watching the waving people below get smaller as Opallie took off for the short flight into the next valley. Between her and Entrapta, they'd managed to get him inside, and tucked into bed. And then he'd blacked out again, and slept for days, Entrapta had told him afterward. The Dryl clones had taken shifts watching over him, and Entrapta had come by three times a day to feed him and check his vitals.

When he re-awakened, Entrapta was sitting on the floor, fiddling with a little device with long wires ending in round pads taped to his chest. On the screen, two lines flickered in time with the steady beat of his two hearts. She glanced up at him, her eyes lighting up as they met his.

"Hordak! You're awake! Oh, I am so glad to see you and I have so much to tell you!"

"Entrapta." he smiled, his voice raspy from lack of use. She put one small, gloved hand into his. Hordak couldn't help but think that, despite his aches and pains, he was the happiest he'd ever been in his entire life. He had helped to pull off a feat that violated the conventional laws of physics, saved his old nemesis, been attacked by multiple Eldritch horrors, and still woken up to see the face of someone who cared about him. He wasn't just lucky to be alive; this was a downright miracle. Entrapta smiled back at him and helped him sit up, but there was something strange and tense about the way she moved that told him something was bothering her. 

"Entrapta, if you are so happy to see me then why are you staring at the floor, and rocking on your heels like that?"

The corner of her mouth twitched, just a little. “All those things you said about how you felt about me before we opened the Portal.....you meant them for real, right?”

“Yes, Entrapta. You know that I value sincerity.”

“When you stepped in there to help Adora, I was so worried that you’d never come back and I’d never get to say all the things I wanted to say to you.” She fidgeted with her hair, agitated and twitchy.

Hordak frowned. What was distressing her? “I am here, Entrapta. Say what you want to say.”

She bit her lip and said nothing for a moment, then all at once her face was inches from his, half her hair supporting her and the other half wrapped around his shoulders.

“Hordak, I love you too,” she said and kissed him.

He tensed up with shock for a moment. What was he supposed to do? He had seen other Etherians kissing, but he didn’t know what purpose it served. Still, he’d only ever seen them kiss in positive contexts, and....it felt nice. He closed his eyes, which felt right, relaxed, and kissed her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, after several days of travel, working, and sleeping, I'm back into it! Thanks for your support. In the next chapter, I'll be introducing two new characters, writing more about the history of the Horde, and giving Catra and Adora a chance to do some great character development.  
> PS: I wrote this one kiss scene specifically to annoy my best friend.


	17. Vexed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hordak learns more about his past, and meets an old friend of sorts, as well as an old enemy. Adora learns more about accepting help.

"My name," said the clone in a cracked whisper, "is Asterio." He blinked his pale eyes tiredly. Asterio was gaunt and weak, and Hordak had to suppress a shudder as he looked at that familiar, appalling gap between the radius and ulna of his arms.

During one of Hordak's periods of unconsciousness just after he'd staggered back through the Portal, Asterio had awoken in a fit of coughing and almost died.  
"Oh no, you don't!" Adora had hissed in frustration, dragging herself across to his convulsing body despite Catra's vehement protests. "We carried you all the way out of that stupid Void dimension, and you don't get to die on us now!

Entrapta had restrained the clone with her hair by the time Adora got there and had her face pressed to his chest, listening. "One of his hearts isn't beating properly. I think I have an idea!" Dashing over to the nearest corner, she rummaged through a pile of bits and pieces and pulled out a Horde shock-baton.  
"You've got to be kidding me," cringed Catra.  
"I'm absolutely serious!" Entrapta grinned, fiddling with a dial on the side. "After you shocked me, and I regained consciousness on Beast Island, I had a lot of time to think about the effects of electric shocks. I worked out that the muscles in our bodies contract and relax in response to electricity, and guess what hearts are made out of?"  
"Love?" Bow ventured.  
"No, silly! Muscle! Our beating hearts are made of muscle, so if I put the electricity in the right place, this clone's heart might start beating in the right rhythm." She poured some kind of thick goop onto the clone's chest.

"But that's crazy!" Catra protested. "Adora....and you....went all limp and floppy when I electrocuted you. It was horrible. It didn't help anyone!"

"That's because the voltage you used was extremely high! If I dial it down to about 500 volts-"

"Adora, seriously, you can't let her do this!" Bow yelped.

Adora was lying on her side, looking faint. "Actually, I can. What I can't do, right now, is transform into She-Ra, and that means I can't heal anyone. After fighting all those things and healing Hordak and myself I...gotta sit down for a bit. There's nothing I can do for this guy right now, and he's getting weaker by the second."

"But these aren't necessarily heart attack symptoms!" Bow said, gesturing to the trembling, gasping clone.

"For one, we don't know exactly how clones work. And secondly, even if he isn't having a heart attack, one of his hearts isn't beating properly and if Entrapta thinks she can fix that without killing him, it's one less problem that he has and maybe a few more minutes for me to get my healing powers restored." Adora retorted.

"Can't you do some kind of....healing spell?" Bow asked Micah, Glimmer, and Angella, in desperation.

All three of them shook their heads. "My healing spells are only very basic. I'm sorry, Bow. Entrapta really is our best bet right now." Micah replied.

"Okay, everyone, stand back!" Entrapta yelled, with an overwhelming amount of confidence. She charged up the shock baton and pressed it to the clone's chest just below where his secondary heart was. He jerked violently, then lay still, but his breathing steadied a little after that and Entrapta confirmed that both his hearts were functional again.

"Great job. Well done! Now just gimme...a few more minutes. A few more minutes and then I'll be strong enough to heal him." Adora mumbled.

***

She must have managed somehow, or Asterio probably wouldn't be lying in a bed in Dryl two weeks later, Hordak thought to himself. He had to hand it to Adora: she really gave a hundred and ten percent. It probably wasn't very good for her, feeling like she had to please someone all the time, but if he was going to think that, then he really was the pot calling the kettle black.

"Where...is...Horde Prime?" Asterio managed, after a long silence, interrupting Hordak's drifting thoughts.

"Oh, he's dead! Hordak shot him and threw him off the ship, and She-Ra vaporized his consciousness." Entrapta replied brightly as she made adjustments to Asterio's bed frame. "There!" She pushed a button and smiled in satisfaction.

Asterio gaped as the bed raised him slowly into a seated position. "Horde Prime is....dead?" he questioned, over the faint whirr of the motor and the clatter of Entrapta putting her tools away.

"Yes. Horde Prime is dead. I personally checked his pulse and threw his corpse out of an airlock. " Hordak replied, watching his new brother's face a little nervously. To his surprise and wonder, Asterio smiled the biggest smile that Hordak had ever seen on any clone, including Hermann.

"Horde Prime is dead! At last!" Asterio exclaimed, tears of joy shining in his eyes.

"You are happy to receive this news?" Hordak ventured.

"Yes! Supremely so, brother! I was his top general, but my...defect rendered me useless to him. He hurled me onto some little tin-pot planet he was conquering, with the intention that I would die on the front lines. At first, I was wracked with guilt and misery, but as the weeks passed by, grief was replaced with anger. After all my years of service! Cast aside like rubbish! Why should I concern myself with Horde Prime's goals? Why should I fight his stupid, endless wars for him, if he was so glorious and all-powerful? I stole one of his ships and fled into the Void, hoping to start a new life somewhere else, but he followed me and must have destroyed my ship."

"Tell me. Everything," said Hordak, absolutely riveted.

"Oh boy. This could take a while!" Entrapta sighed. She left them to it and went to get herself a tiny coffee.

***

They were still talking hours later when she wandered back in with Adora, Bow, Catra, Glimmer and Swiftwind, who had dropped by to invite them to a party celebrating Angella's return.  
"Friends are here!" she announced, through a mouthful of muffin. "Want some food, you two?" She'd been listening in for the past half hour, to discern what he best time to interrupt them was. The shouting had been audible throughout the entire castle when Hordak told Asterio about the origins of his so-called defect, and it had taken a while for him to calm down.

Hordak and Asterio looked up from their conversation. "Yes! Food! Food is good!" cried Asterio. "Have you got any ginger biscuits and strong coffee? Perhaps some brandy?"

"I do have tiny ginger biscuits, and coffee, but-"

"I've got the brandy," said Catra, unhooking a flask from a belt around her waist.

"How does a clone know about any of those things?" Adora asked, confused.

"I've told you before, Adora. Contraband. I swear you and Scorpia were the only people in the entire Horde who didn't know you could get other kinds of food besides Horde rations." Catra replied, exasperated.  
"Even I knew about the contraband. It was there because I permitted it. A pointless activity such as smuggling food in distracts most soldiers from doing anything truly rebellious," said Hordak, amused.

Adora went to protest, but before she could think of something suitably clever to say, the device on her belt beeped at her. Unclipping it, she looked at the little screen and raised her eyebrows.  
"Incoming message from the town of Lepidoptera. There's some kind of wild beast loose in the forest nearby, and it could be dangerous. Good thing that Swiftwind came! I've gotta go!"

"Oh no you don't!" snapped Catra, grabbing her arm. "We've talked about this! You do not have to solve everyone's problems immediately, and you do not have to do it on your own."

"Oh yes, I do!" Adora retaliated. "I'm She-Ra, and whether anyone likes it or not, that role comes with responsibilities. Swiftwind and I can sort this out in a jiffy! It's just a scared animal, probably, and I don't want to interrupt you guys for the sake of calming down some wild pig-thing with six eyes." She pulled her arm loose from Catra's grip and hurried off.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid!" Swiftwind whispered to Catra before following Adora, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Ugh, she NEVER listens! This is why we live at opposite ends of Brightmoon, now! Catra huffed. Bow patted her shoulder, consolingly.

***

Adora left Swiftwind in a clearing near where she'd been told the beast lived. "I'll be right back! This patch of forest is pretty dense, and you won't be able to follow me easily."

"Okay, don't go far! If you need me, just shout!" Swiftwind called after her, nervously, as she transformed into She-Ra. He knew she could handle herself in a fight, but one day....one day this hero complex of hers was going to get her into real trouble.

She-Ra wasn't listening to Swiftwind's anxious fretting behind her as she pushed through the vines and trees, trying to restrain herself from hacking it all back with her sword. "Be kind to nature! You are the protector of Etheria," she muttered to herself.

The snap of a twig nearby caught her attention, and she turned her head to meet the gaze of a pair of large, orange eyes, seven feet off the ground. The mouth below the eyes opened in a snarl to reveal orange teeth, standing out brightly against a pale blue, distinctively angular face.

She-Ra gasped. It was a clone. A feral clone covered head to foot in scars, and that meant she was way, way in over her head. She gripped her sword tightly and tried to think of a plan at the same time as the clone was very obviously sizing her up for a fight.  
The clone looked like it had been living in the forest for months and having daily fights with the local wildlife, which was, in fact, a fairly accurate description of its current lifestyle.  
She was more than strong enough to kill it, but it was a living, sentient creature. He was. He was alive, and possibly injured, and very, very angry, and probably scared. So. She couldn't kill him, except as a last resort. She'd have to either fight him into submission or ideally, talk him into not fighting her.  
Thankfully for her, Swiftwind had followed her quietly and was standing a few metres behind her with his wings outspread and his horn held in a very menacing posture.

The clone considered this. He may have been large, and exceptionally aggressive, but he was not stupid and he would not start a fight where the odds were so distinctly against him. She-Ra on her own was enough to deal with, without the addition of an angry horse with a sharp thing on its face.  
"What do you want?" he growled, at last.

"Oh, hi there! I'm She-Ra and-"

"I know who you are, and I don't like you. Now, what do you want from me?"

"I guess I want to uh, help you? Oh! Your...wings?"

He had turned to the side just a little and shifted his shoulders. There were indeed wings sprouting from his back, but they were small and bloody and already ragged. She-Ra vaguely remembered something about natural wing growth being very painful for clones, and she certainly remembered helping Hordak with his wings.  
"That looks painful! I can help you with that - I'm quite good at fixing wings!" she volunteered, cheerfully.

"I do not need or want, your help. Go away." the clone replied, glaring at her.

There was something feral in his gaze that She-Ra had seen before, but where?  
Ah yes.  
Catra.  
Catra, when she had let her pain drive her mad, and make her desperate, and vicious, and cruel.  
It was the look of a trapped animal, unable to escape its fate, but willing to fight tooth and claw to its very last breath just to prove that it could.

She-Ra sighed. "You're right. You don't need my help." She turned back to Swiftwind and together, they flew away.

***

Hours later, she returned with Hordak and Catra. She'd gone back to Dryl looking very ashamed of herself and admitted that she did need their help after all. At Hordak's request, Glimmer had gone to the Scorpion Kingdom to fetch Rachne, if she could be spared, and Entrapta and Bow had stayed behind to keep the grumpy-yet-charming Asterio company.

They dismounted cautiously in the clearing, and Glimmer pinged into view moments later with Rachne at her side. They discussed, in low voices, their plan. It wasn't going to be easy. Feral clones were few and far between, and they'd never seen one this angry. The clone in question had of course disappeared, but it wasn't difficult to track his clumsy progress through the forest. By the looks of the scuff marks in the dirt, at least one of his legs was injured, and he was obviously in pain.

They found him ten minutes later, sitting just out of reach on a rock behind a dense clump of bushes. He stared at them, slit-eyed, and growled.

"Hey. It's alright. We're here to help you." Glimmer said, gently.  
"We can fix your wings so you can fly, and heal your wounds, and give you food." coaxed She-Ra.

"I said, I do not need or want your help! GO AWAY!" the clone snarled.

Hordak, Rachne, and Catra exchanged amused glances. They knew this tactic wouldn't work, of course, but they had to try.  
The clone was still growling, so She-Ra and Glimmer stepped back. "Hordak, it's your turn," Rachne said, nudging him forward.

He spread his wings slowly, tail swishing side to side, and an almost subsonic growl began to emanate from his chest. The clone hissed back at him, and the growl built into a rumble, low and threatening. Hordak bared his teeth and flattened his ears back. It was, very obviously, a threat display, and a very effective one at that.

"I didn't know clones could do that!" Glimmer whispered to Catra. "Of course they can! They're a different species, remember, and they probably have their own language and behaviors!" Catra scoffed. Glimmer glanced up at her ears, flicking back and forth as she spoke, and nodded.

Hordak was indeed speaking to the other clone, in a series of extraordinarily low rumbles, and he was replying in kind. Eventually, they must have reached some kind of impasse because the other clone lowered his head and stared at the ground. He would be a fool to think he could take on Hordak, healthy and strong and well-fed, in a fight. Unless...  
He tilted his head to one side, and studied Hordak, curiously, then smiled viciously.  
"I remember you," he said, with a contemptuous sneer.

Hordak was staring back at him, trying to figure out the connection. His eyes widened as the spark of recognition hit.  
"And I remember you," he replied, with a note of barely controlled anger in his voice.

"Hordak? Is that you?" the other clone said, taking a half step forward. "You look very different to the weak, defective mess I remember dragging from Prime's throne room. All fixed-up now, are we?"  
"Yes," replied Hordak, his tail switching a little faster and his hackles raised.  
"You always were delusional." the feral clone said, smirking.

"Seriously?" Catra murmured, half to herself, half to Adora. "This is a nightmare! Hordak!" she hissed, desperately.  
He did not reply but flicked his tail and one ear in her direction to indicate that he'd heard and understood. He knew what was at stake here.  
Everything. Just everything.  
If he could do this, if he could hold his temper and stay calm, he could prove to himself and to all Etheria that the past was losing its grip on him and he was really becoming a different person.  
His opponent noted his slight shift in posture, and tried again, to bait him.  
"Tell me, how does it feel to be so weak and dependent on these pathetic Etherian princesses?"

"If you really think I'm so weak, and they're so pathetic, then why are you hiding in the shadows like a coward?" Hordak replied.  
It worked. The clone snarled and lunged at him, but Hordak ducked easily under his clumsy swipe and stepped nimbly to one side. He'd been taking sparring lessons from Catra, and it was paying off.  
Hordak dodged two more strikes and swatted the clone in his face with his tail. Now he'd really done it. Enraged, the clone finally stepped right out into the open, and quick as a flash, Rachne's tail swung forward and struck him on the shoulder.  
He sputtered and swayed for a moment, then collapsed.  
"You insolent, cowardly, defective fool!" he roared, trying and failing to raise his numb body from the ground.  
"I am not a coward," said Hordak. "I am merely pragmatic. Catra, your turn!" He stepped away, relieved, and Catra took his place, with Adora right behind her.

She started by unsheathing her claws and scoring five deep furrows in a nearby tree trunk.  
"Okay, feral boy, you see this? You're helpless right now. You're not in a position to bargain or growl. I absolutely could kill you, very easily. I am being nice to you for one reason, and one reason only. I want to help you because I know how you feel. Got it?"  
He nodded, resentfully, from his undignified position in the dirt.  
"He's just like you were when we first found you!" Rachne whispered to Hordak.

***

It took Catra ten minutes of persistent, gentle coaxing and the occasional veiled threat to get him to reveal his name.  
"My name is Vex," he said at last, very grumpily.  
"Vex. Hello Vex. I'm Catra, and this is Adora, and Hordak, and Swiftwind, and Glimmer, and Rachne." They waved. Vex snorted contemptuously and flicked an errant lock of dirty teal hair out of his face.

"So, tell us what's going on for ya, Vex? What's happening, and why do you hate us all so much?"  
"That is no business of yours."  
"Sorry, Vex, but it has been our business from the moment you started threatening the village nearby. You've got the right to live your own life, but the moment you start interfering with other people and scaring them, you have to deal with these meddling princesses. You don't have any bargaining power, and we're being so nice to you, remember?" Catra purred, tactfully displaying her claws again.

"Why should I trust you?" said Vex, suspiciously.  
"Because if we really wanted to hurt you, we would have done it already. Duh. Now, I've got a question for you: why won't you let us help you?"  
"I do not need your help," he replied, staring uncomfortably at a rock two inches from his nose.  
"I think you do," said Adora, kindly.  
"Yeah, that wound on your leg needs cleaning and stitching, and you could use a good bath, and....when was the last time you had a square meal?" Glimmer asked.  
"Two days ago. I caught a pigeon and ate it raw." Vex admitted.  
"Ugh. Okay. That is NOT good for you." Glimmer chided.

"Begging your pardon, Mister Vex," said Swiftwind, "But your wings don't look so good. Wouldn't you like us to help you fly? I can teach you how to do loop-de-loops! They're so much fun!"  
Vex glanced back at the shrivelled wings that lay limp on his back, blistered and torn. Their joints were swollen, and the still-growing muscles made an angry knot on his shoulder blades. His tail wasn't faring much better: it was currently little more than a stump.  
"I can do it on my own," he said, sullenly.

Catra sighed and sat down heavily in the dirt.  
"Look, believe it or not, I kinda know how you feel. When I was in the Horde, I didn't want anyone to know when I was scared or hurt, and I sometimes still don't! It would be nice for me to believe that I'm a strong independent cat who doesn't need any friends or heroes, and technically it is possible to live an entirely independent life, but it sucks! It's so lonely and boring, and impractical. Yeah, you COULD grow those wings on your own, but what would that achieve? You could get the same result with a whole lot less pain and a whole lot more support....and besides, what if something goes wrong, and your wings don't form properly? I know it's hard to trust people, sometimes, but I'm telling you that life really is better with friends! For starters, you can steal their food."

Vex nodded, slowly. "Alright," he said reluctantly. He was very hungry, and his wings did really hurt. Perhaps having friends might be a good idea, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Asterio ended up being loosely based on a friend of mine, which is partly why he speaks differently to the other clones. Imagine him being grumpy and British, and you've got the picture. In my head, he's about a thousand years old, although physically he's only in his fifties since time doesn't actually exist in the Void. It would have taken Horde Prime a lot of experimentation to get the brainwashing thing juuust right, so that clones, especially generals, could function semi-independently but not want to rebel. I think Hordak is Horde Prime's most successful creation, in a sad kind of way, since he was loyal to Prime even after being tossed aside to die.   
> Asterio's body is wrecked. It gives a good parallel between what Hordak was, physically, and what he is now. I did briefly contemplate killing Asterio off but decided that introducing a character to kill them a short time later is a Bad Trope and I hate it. So, here he is! I think that he and Hordak will be very good friends.
> 
> Vex was a very spontaneous creation, and I wrote about him here to compare and contrast the different ways that clones could be affected by their experiences with Horde Prime. I wanted to see what would happen if a clone went rogue and just.....absolutely feral. I think they'd be quite scary, and potentially very dangerous. The reason that Vex's wings have started to develop on their own will be dealt with in the next chapter. Vex is an aggressive, aloof, independent asshole but I love him. He's an angery boi, hence his name.
> 
> As a side note, I'm really enjoying being able to develop Catra and Adora as characters. I think Catra would be able to empathise with people like Vex, and I think she might find that helping other people is quite healing. Many people find it profoundly helpful to realise that they can use their knowledge from past painful experiences to help others who are also in pain. It's as though it gives more meaning to the pain, and makes having had that bad experience easier to bear if someone else can be helped by it.  
>  For Adora, realising and appreciating Catra's abilities is going to be very important.
> 
> The overall message of this chapter is that people are most effective and happy in a community. It took a lot of people all working together to get Vex out of a bush without hurting him or letting him hurt others, and every character in that scene has something unique to contribute. Teamwork is what works, as tacky as that sounds, and in Western society I think there's not nearly enough focus on the tremendous power of community and collaboration.


	18. Can We Start Over?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex reflects on his time in the Horde and makes new friends. Hordak asks for help with a new project that could change Etheria for the better.

Vex stood on one of Crypto Castle’s many balconies and watched the sun rising, golden and majestic, over the mountains of Dryl. The snow-spattered slopes of the nearby Solder Peak were resplendent, gilded with pinks and golds and purples. Vex had never seen anything like it in his life before he'd arrived here two weeks before, half-conscious on Opallie's back. He was beginning to wonder why he’d clung so fiercely to his damp and lonely life in the depths of the Whispering Woods, not that he’d ever admit that to anyone.  
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” murmured Asterio. “Almost makes you forget the bloody awful mountain weather, sometimes. I’ll bet you it’ll be blowing a gale by noon.”  
Vex chuckled at the cynicism of his friend, seated beside him in the wheelchair Hordak had made for him. Vex pushed him up here every morning, even carrying him up the last flight of stairs between the floors Entrapta hadn’t yet connected with elevators.  
Though technically separated by almost a thousand years in age, given Asterio’s time in the void, he and Vex were becoming good friends.

***

Vex had barely said a word in his first few days at Crypto Castle. He allowed himself to be showed to his room, and his wounds checked over, but after that any attempts at communication were met with a snarl. He’d even refused She-Ra’s offer of healing. Hordak’s presence kept him from all-out violence, but his physical dominance made Vex resentful.  
“Piss off and fly away, why don’t you?” was the usual insult.

After a third attempt at conversation was rebuffed, Rachne found a rather upset Hordak sulking in the corner of his laboratory. She’d come to stay for a few weeks, partly to oversee Vex’s “rehabilitation” and partly to allow Scorpia to adjust to being Queen without her mother looking over her shoulder at every turn.

Hordak looked up from the crushed remains of a robot he had started to work on, and in his irritation destroyed, as he heard the quiet clicking of Rachne’s carapace as she approached.  
“What’s got your goat this time, old friend?” she asked, gently.  
“It is that irritable Vex! Gah, he is even more ill-tempered than I am. Every attempt I make at conversing with him is met with aggression, and I do not understand why!”  
“You see that he’s like you, don’t you, and you want to help him?”  
“Yes. He is in pain. Although he once served Horde Prime, as I did, and cast me out of the Horde, I have been inspired by Entrapta’s forgiveness of Catra. She understands that it is possible to forgive a former enemy without allowing them to hurt you again. It seemed ludicrous to me, at first, but after witnessing the peace and focus it gives her, I thought I would try it for myself. It is futile! I cannot do it! I cannot earn his favour!”

Rachne stopped him by placing one claw gently on his shoulder. “It is not futile. You are merely doing something that’s very difficult, and you need to remember that your own value isn’t determined by someone else’s perspective of you. See, when you first showed up on this planet you were just as aggressive and scared. You bit three people within the first week, even though you were too weak to stand!” She laughed at the memory. Hordak lowered his ears, guiltily.

“But we persisted, and it was worth it. It took a long time to gain your trust. In the Horde, you were conditioned to show no weakness.”  
He folded his wings around himself a little more tightly. “And I sensed that at the time, you were stronger than I, and I was afraid.”  
“Yes. You were afraid that we would hurt you too, so you tried to push us away. It’s the same with nearly every rogue clone and former Horde soldier we’ve found hiding in our kingdom.”  
“Ah, so Vex perceives me as a threat, then? Is that what you are saying?” Hordak mused, swishing his tail thoughtfully and bumping a neatly-stacked pile of metal plating, which Rachne succeeded in covertly stabilising with her own tail before it collapsed.  
“Exactly, Hordak! He’ll come round in time, don’t worry. Just like you did.”  
“I hope that he does not follow in my precise footsteps, Rachne.” Hordak grimaced.  
“Hah! Yeah, let’s not start any more wars, shall we?”  
“Agreed. In the meantime, I shall attempt to be....what is that word Entrapta keeps using?”  
“Patient?”  
“Yes. Patient.”

***

It was only two days later that Asterio stuck his head into Vex’s door, and was unimpressed by the resultant warning growl.  
“If you’re going to intimidate someone, do it properly!” he said with a wry smile at the grumpy clone huddled on the bed.  
Vex bared his teeth again. “You cannot even stand. What business have you, challenging me?”  
“Because I need your help! It’s dinner-time and seeing as I am so feeble, I need someone to give me a little help in and out of my wheelchair! But before we venture into the dining hall” and here he paused to glare at Vex’s muddy skin and torn clothing, “we must get cleaned up. Come on!”

Vex scowled. The idea that he would bathe with another clone was not unusual. In the Horde, clones had bathed together in squadrons, at an allocated time-slot, to maximise efficiency. Across Etheria, many clones had continued the habit, to the general astonishment of the Etherians. They were, after all, very social creatures.

Vex, however, was not a social creature and he had not bathed in weeks, aside from cleaning some of his deeper wounds. Furthermore. the idea that another clone was asking for his help?  
“Absurd.” he scoffed. “Why reveal your weaknesses to me?”  
“Because I have no other choice. Here, we live together and we are not cast out for our failures. We are strong together, and we must help one another if we are to survive.”

Asterio had been so weak and near death when he first arrived on Etheria that he’d had no option but to accept the care that was given to him.  
He’d asked Entrapta one day, while she was making adjustments to his wheelchair, why she was helping him.  
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”  
“How does it benefit you?”  
“It doesn’t! Not right now, anyway. But maybe, one day in the future, you might help me or someone else. It’s very efficient! If we all take care of one another, everyone is better off.”

Vex snorted in response when Asterio explained this.  
“Can’t some other clone help you?”  
“Yes, but it’s time you got off your sorry arse and started participating around here!” Asterio growled, his patience wearing thin.

Something in his tone made Vex almost snap to attention, and that was that. He found himself wheeling Asterio down the hallway and joining a growing throng of other clones in Dryl’s main bathing rooms. There were nearly seventy of them now, in a riot of colours; mainly purples and pinks but also reds, burgundies, blues, browns, and a few oranges. Many of them had horns too, like those of rams or mountain goats, but all of them, except Vex, were chattering animatedly as they stripped down to their underwear and collected stacks of fluffy towels.  
Another hundred or so clones bathed in the natural springs in the growing, neighbouring village of Hammer. Hordak himself still lived there, too. He needed his space, and Entrapta respected that.

Asterio pressed a round blue button on the wall as they entered the bathing rooms, and the dozens of baths before them began to fill with steaming water.  
Opallie had found a particularly large hot-water spring in the mountains and had suggested to Entrapta that she could channel the water to the castle. This idea was met with great enthusiasm by all the castle’s inhabitants, particularly the kitchen staff. Entrapta herself had formerly simply dunked herself in a tub of water as she left the lab each day and then walked through a blow-drier, and that was that. She was intrigued by the notion of using hot water for bathing.  
The Horde clones had only ever had cold showers and were at first perplexed by the tubs of warm water and soap bubbles. In her usual enthusiasm, Entrapta had added water jets and fountains and bubble dispensers, all of which were a little overwhelming to someone accustomed only to frugality and efficiency. However, once they realised how nice the warm water was, they began to look forward to their daily baths.

Vex hid his confusion with a scowl as he pushed Asterio closer to the nearest vacant bath. He still couldn’t believe he was doing this. Another clone, who introduced himself as Elbio, not that Vex cared, helped him support Asterio into the water. Vex sat beside him on the step and contemplated a mound of bubbles.

Amusingly, at the same time in Brightmoon, Catra was doing more or less the same thing. She detested baths, and it had taken months for Adora to convince her not to associate them with Horde Prime’s horrific purification pool. It was for that same reason that Entrapta had taken care not to make anything in the room white, green, or in any way reminiscent of Prime’s ship. Instead, the walls were made from local stone, and the bath interiors painted a calming blue that Double Trouble had chosen.

Vex scooped up a heap of the bubbles in one massive clawed hand.  
“What is this for?” he asked Asterio, reluctantly.  
“For cleaning!”  
“And fun!” Elbio added, brightly, lathering suds through his mane of deep purple hair.  
“You use it like this.” said Asterio, scooping up a handful and rubbing it carefully across one bony forearm. “It makes the dirt come off. See?”

Already, just by sitting in the water, weeks of built-up mud and grime had begun to loosen and were promptly siphoned up by a little turtle-like filter-bot. Vex shrugged his massive shoulders and applied some of the bubbles to his arm, and rubbed. It was vaguely cathartic, watching the dirt and dried blood come away, and he soon moved on to his other arm, his chest, and his face. The soap stung a little, but Vex was no stranger to pain and he was far too proud to get out of the water because of a few stinging cuts. He discovered that under all that caked-on forest crud, his skin had changed to a bright teal, marked here and there with vivid streaks and whorls of orange. The effect was rather handsome, he thought privately, as he looked with curiosity at his reflection in the water.

“Not so bad after all, is it?” said Asterio quietly, raking his pink-streaked hair back from his face with his fingers. He still liked to keep it neat.  
“Perhaps not,” Vex admitted. He looked around at his many brothers, all enjoying themselves, some caked in bubbles, and had to suppress a smile. He’d missed being in the company of other clones.

***

Half an hour later, clean and dry, he pushed Asterio down the hallways to the dining room. Elbio had kindly given him a pair of baggy black pants to replace his ragged once-white robe, but he had refused the offer of a shirt. Having clothing on his back irritated his still-budding wings, and besides, he liked the way the ragged Patherdeer scars on his bare torso seemed to intimidate others.

He’d reluctantly allowed Elbio and Asterio to help him clean his wings and back.  
Clones naturally struggled to touch their own shoulder-blades, courtesy of their very wide shoulders, so they usually required some assistance with bathing anyway. The last time Vex had let anyone touch his shoulders was aboard Prime’s ship before they touched down on Etheria. He’d stood in a long line of clones in the showers, each one scrubbing the back of the one in front, silently preparing themselves for the often long, drawn-out process of planetary acquisition. Horde Prime was adamant that his soldiers had to be clean and “pure” before the battle.  
That was another reason Vex had avoided bathing and all associations with his former life. He had reveled, for a while, in the rebelliousness of being ragged, dirty, alone, free, and feral. Most clones hadn’t taken this path, post-war, but then again, most clones hadn’t had to drag their own brother off a ship, screaming.  
He wasn’t proud of his part in Hordak’s downfall, not really. It hadn’t been easy seeing his former, honoured commander cut down and broken, suddenly fallen from grace. He’d told himself at the time that Hordak was defective, unworthy, and deceitful for hiding his flaws, but he’d never quite been able to shake that uneasy feeling that it would one day happen to him. One day, after years of faithful service, he too could be cast aside. Just like that.  
Having seen Hordak get rejected a second time just made it worse. At the time he’d found himself asking himself what Hordak actually did wrong on this occasion, to deserve such treatment, but then he’d caught Prime’s razor-sharp acid green stare and pushed that thought aside.  
He got dunked in the purification pool that night. Just in case. It had hurt like hell.

He’d been hoping, desperately, all his life, that it had been worth it.

So when he’d seen Hordak in the forest on that fateful day, with She-Ra, of all people, and complete with wings, horns, and a sodding tail, of all things, it had really stung. It was like having his eyes peeled open for the first time and being hit head-on with the ugly truth of everything Horde Prime had robbed him of. Identity. Personality. Independence. Flight.  
The evidence was staring him right in the face, eight feet tall, and Vex knew at that moment that he’d really lost it all. He’d been wrong, about Horde Prime, about the meaning of his life, about literally everything, and that hurt worse than he ever could have imagined. It was no wonder, then, that he’d hardly spoken to anyone in the last few days.

Even as he helped Asterio into his seat at the table, and sat down beside him, he kept his head down.  
He knew Hordak was there, seated beside Entrapta at the head of that vast table, and he didn’t want to look at him. How the hell, he wondered, could Hordak take the shame? How could he deal with the ultimate, humilating futility of nearly everything he’d done and believed?

Vex focussed on eating, which wasn’t difficult since he was ravenous and the food was delicious. Hermann visited Dryl often, and between him, Entrapta and Hordak, they had worked out how to meet the dietary requirements of clones using whatever could be grown on Etheria. Although Prime had preferred his clones to derive their nutrients from his carefully designed amniotic fluid, he had engineered them to be able to digest almost anything. It wasn’t much use deploying troops onto an alien world and having them starve to death if something went wrong and they couldn't access their usual rations. So, clones could survive on bugs and leaves and bark, if need be, but of course, it wasn’t ideal.

What was ideal, thought Vex, was this kind of food. Real food that you could bite and chew, that wasn’t green and prepackaged and full of weird mind-numbing hormones.  
He had no idea what this meal was called but it seemed to be some kind of sweet, starchy root, roasted with vaguely nutty-tasting beanlike things, and drizzled with a sauce made presumably from berries and vinegar. He ate three enormous helpings, then sat back with a contented sigh and immediately flinched as his wings brushed the back of his chair.

That caught Entrapta’s attention, unfortunately, and she leaned over to whisper something to Hordak. Sh*t.  
But although Hordak looked at him thoughtfully for a while, he waited until the meal was over and the dishes were being cleared away by servitor-bots. Then, and only then did he come striding purposefully toward him with his tail swishing behind him. He halted, awkwardly, a few metres away from Vex as though something had just occurred to him, and Vex realised that he was waiting for permission to approach.  
The idea that Hordak didn’t want to intimidate him startled Vex, just enough for him to briefly incline his head in greeting.

“Good evening, Vex,” said Hordak, taking a few more steps forward. “I trust that the food was...nutritionally adequate?”  
“It was excellent,” said Vex, suspiciously. “What is it that you want?”  
“Entrapta and I have observed that you are the only clone, besides myself, to begin developing wings. We believe that eventually, all the clones across Etheria will undergo this process, and we want to understand more about it so that we may make the process less painful.”  
“So you want my help?” said Vex, in disbelief.  
“Yes. If you are willing to give it, your help would be invaluable. We need you, Vex.”

They need me, thought Vex. Someone needs my help, but they aren’t forcing me to do anything. It’s my choice if I help or not.  
“What?” he stammered.

Hordak smiled, just a little. He still remembered the first time someone had asked for his help. It had been Entrapta, of course, and the request had stunned him, too.  
“I am asking for your help, Vex. You do not have to help me if you do not want to, but we, and all of Etheria, would be grateful for your assistance.”  
Entrapta was beside Hordak now, with one arm around his waist. “You could contribute valuable data that might change the world. Can you help us? Please?” she asked.  
“Yes,” said Vex. It was Entrapta's “please” that really got him. Nobody had ever said "please" to him before. “Yes, I’ll help you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The aim of this chapter was really just to do a bunch of character studies and draw a bunch of parallels before I launch into the next chapter, which is fairly big and involves She-Ra, Catradora, more about what happens to the clones, etc, etc, etc.  
> It took me several days to write this but I'm pretty happy with it. For now. Hah. 
> 
> Goodness, I really love Vex. Sometimes I'd like to go absolutely feral too; just run away and live in the forest and be covered in leaves and dirt and not have to care what anyone thinks. Vex will probably always hate shirts and spend the rest of his life in fat pants, because why not.  
> Asterio is neat too. By the way, his hair is going to be hot pink and I'm thinking he'll have bright blue eyes. 
> 
> I realised the other day while I was at a LOTR thing, looking at a diagram of how tall Sauron is, that eight feet is very, very tall. Like, freakin huge. There's only one canonical reference to anyone's height in this entire show, and it's in S1 when Mermista describes She-Ra as "an eight-foot-tall lady with a sword". That's all we really have to go on, given that the size of various characters is quite inconsistent throughout the show. The clones are shown as being about as tall as She-Ra is, so...I'm just going with that. Close enough. 
> 
> There are probaly two more chapters in this particular story/continuity, and I'm thinking I'll write some short stories before starting on my next project, which will take place in the same universe and build on the ideas I explored here. It will be called "The Fulbrights" and it's set on Etheria, about five years after the war, so there will be a few fan kids and a lot more character development, and, of course, lots more about the clones and She-Ra and so forth. For now, stay tuned for the last few chapters of Messily Ever Aftermath, and as always, thank you for reading!


	19. Not This Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The clones of Etheria are growing restless and dangerously short-tempered as their wings begin to grow, but Entrapta has a plan. Unfortunately, this plan involves She-Ra.

“Entrapta, you’re not serious about this, right?”  
“But of course I’m serious, Bow! Would I have come all this way to talk to you and done all this data analysis if I wasn’t?”  
“I was really hoping you wouldn’t say that.”  
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you yet again, but Hordak and I have been working on this for weeks – with your dads as well – and I really think it’s our best option.”  
“Fine. But the others really aren’t going to like this idea, especially not Catra.”  
Bow grimaced, and lead Entrapta into the Friendship Room at Brightmoon, where a similarly animated conversation was taking place between the members of the Princess Alliance.

“It’s the same all over Etheria! Clones, getting more grumpy by the day, and let’s not forget that there are...how many of them are there again?” Mermista mumbled with her head in her hands.  
“Fifty-two thousand, seven hundred and twenty three-ish?” Scorpia suggested, helpfully.  
“Yeah. That many of them. So, when are we going to deal with this before they turn on us and things get bloody or whatever? I love the clones dearly and all, but really, this is a pretty big problem.”  
Frosta sat up as tall as she could so she could see over the table while she spoke. “We could round them all up and put them on Beast Island while we figure out how to help them?”  
“Well, that is non-violent and proactive so I suppose that’s good, but it still isn’t addressing the problem directly.” Micah mused, tapping his fingers thoughtfully on the table.

  
“And that’s where I come in!” Entrapta interjected, proudly brandishing her compad and a stack of complicated diagrams.  
Angella smiled and nodded her greetings. “Entrapta! Good to see you. Perhaps you can solve our predicament? We’ve been arguing about it for hours, and honestly, I’m exhausted.”  
“Oh, believe me, I think I’ve solved it!” Entrapta grinned, bounding up onto the table. Bow cringed.  
“I’ve run a number of tests on Hordak, Vex, and a random sample of clones from around Dryl, and I’ve found the cause of their irritability: they’re developing wings!”

  
“Yeah, thanks Entrapta but we kinda figured that out already. What we wanna know is what we’re going to do about it.” Catra replied, leaning her chin on her hand and looking distinctly fed-up.  
“Great! Then we’re on the same page. The clones are all miserable because they’re in pain, so we’re going to help them. Hermann and I have created a diet that will accelerate the process they’re going through.”  
Adora looked baffled. “Why would we want to do that?”   
“Because you’re going to do what you did for Hordak and use your She-Ra powers to heal them, and She-ra can only fix things that are already there!”  
“All of them?”  
“Yep! All of them! At once!”

  
Catra narrowed her eyes. “Entrapta, you know that She-Ra can only do the healing and restoration thing for about two people at a time, right?”  
“I sure do! That’s why I’ve built an amplifier for her powers!” she said triumphantly, unfurling a very big diagram of a machine vaguely resembling a cannon made largely from First Ones tech.  
“An amplifier? For She-Ra? Like the Heart of Etheria?”  
“Yeaaaaah kinda.”

  
Chaos ensued. There was some screaming, but eventually, the Brightmoon guards managed to restrain Catra.  
“You rebuilt the Heart of Etheria?” she hissed, almost frothing with rage and struggling against the four guards it took to hold her. Adora’s face was flushed bright red, Glimmer was taking very deep breaths, and Bow was almost hiding under the table. He’d warned Entrapta.  
“Not really, no. Come to think of it, it’s entirely different, based on what I could find out from the wreckage of the Heart.”  
“So, what does it do then, this device of yours?” said Angella with forced calm, reminding herself that Entrapta had built the portal that saved her life.  
“It’s like a – actually no, I need to explain my research on magic first.”  
“Fire away.” said Micah, dismally, mentally taking stock of the Brightmoon wine reserves. He was going to need something stronger than tea to recover from this day.

  
“Magic,” began Entrapta, “is just another form of energy, like light or sound or electricity. We call it supernatural because we don’t quite understand what it is, or how it works, but I’ve managed to deduce this much: First One's Crystals are kind of like.....circuits. With inbuilt batteries. You know what those are, right? Great. You’re all nodding, and I’m hoping you're not just pretending to understand. Anyway, for whatever reason, First Ones Crystals pull latent magic from the surrounding environment and store it to use later. The writing on the crystals is kind of like a “code” which determines how that magic can best be used.”  
“Right, so Hordak’s armour is powered by love, then?” said Adora, fascinated.  
Entrapta blushed, just a little. “Yeah, the crystals are general power sources, but they work best when they’re used for something corresponding with the writing on them.”

  
“Cool! So, how does this relate to this Amplifier thing you’ve made?” Bow quizzed.  
“Great question! Lance, George, and I selected crystals which correspond to She-Ra’s ability to heal and transform, and stuck them all together in an order that made sense.”  
“Right, so with her power and the crystals combined, and her directing the energy, there will be enough magic to make all the clones grow wings at once?”  
“Uhhh, not exactly. That amount of magic being drained from Etheria at once would kill all of the magic-based creatures within a ten-mile radius. We just couldn’t figure out how we were going to get all that magic since according to the laws of physics, energy can’t be created or destroyed.”  
“Let me guess, you found some outrageously complicated and unbelievable way to violate physics and make more magic?”  
“No. My approach is much simpler: we put She-Ra in a universe where energy can be spontaneously generated. She’ll fire the Amplifier standing inside the gateway of the Portal to Nowhere.”

***

Adora found Catra hours later, perched exactly where she knew she’d be: on the roof of the highest tower in Brightmoon. Luckily, she was a good climber herself, after a lifetime of dealing with Catra’s sulky fits, and she managed to reach the top only a little out of breath.

  
“Hey, Catra. What’s up?” she said, flopping down beside her with a sigh.  
“Oh, nothing much. Just thinking yet again about how you’re gonna die doing something stupid and heroic, leaving me all alone for the rest of my life.”  
“Catra!” Adora laughed. “You know that’s not how it is. I’m just doing the clones a favour, and it’ll be fine! Hordak’s promised he’ll be right there in the Portal with me, with Emily and Melog, to watch my back.”  
“That’s always the story, isn’t it. You’re “just” gonna do this or that and you play it off like it’s nothing, but one day it’ll catch up with you and you’re “just” gonna die!” Catra lay back and twitched her tail, ears flattened against her skull in agitation.  
“Why do you always get so upset when I’m She-Ra?”  
“I don't have a problem with you being She-Ra, I have a problem with the crazy things you do while you’re She-Ra. It’s all fine and good if you’re just getting a kid out of a tree or lifting something really heavy, but you’ve got a habit of getting into problems that are wayyyy bigger than yourself.”  
“But Catra, I couldn’t just stand by and let Etheria get destroyed!” Adora protested, dismayed.  
“I know, and I get it. You had to do the whole save-the-world thing. It was the right thing to do! But I thought that deactivating the Heart of Etheria would be the last really big life-threatening thing you’d do and we could, you know, live a normal life together. But then there was Angella in the Portal, and now there’s this, and I bet there will be a million more things in the future.”

Adora rested her chin on her knees and stared at the sea for a while before answering. “What part of our life has ever been normal? And you know perfectly well that you’d get bored with normal, Catra Applesauce Meow-meow!”  
“Hah!” Catra laughed, harshly, sitting up. “You’re probably right about that. But I really don’t see how the clones growing wings is your problem, and why you should risk your life for it!”  
“Look, I don’t just get to stop being She-Ra-”  
“I know, Adora, but you DO get to choose what She-Ra does. I said it before, I don't have a problem with you being She-Ra, I have a problem you doing stupid things to fix problems that aren’t yours while you’re She-Ra.”

  
“But I can help them!" Adora replied, huffily. "I know this bothers you because you care about me and you don’t want me getting hurt....and I’ve spent the last few hours talking to Entrapta and trying to figure out literally any other way we could solve this, but it’s just not possible! If I don’t do this, the clones will be in constant pain for six months, and you saw how aggressive Vex got! He still won’t let me help him, so Rachne spikes his morning coffee with venom to numb the pain.”  
“Spending a few hours talking to someone before hurling yourself into mortal peril does not count as "considering all the options!" Anyway," Catra continued, smoothing down her ruffled fur, " in that case we collect scorpion venom, dilute it, and deal it out to the clones. Problem solved!”  
“There’s not enough scorpion venom on Etheria to make six months worth of painkillers for fifty-two thousand clones,” Adora answered, flatly.   
“Can’t Micah and Angella and the sorcerers of Mystacor help you by channeling their magic into Entrapta’s machine?” Catra was getting desperate, now.   
“They’re not powerful enough, even together, and putting them in the Portal with me is dangerous.”

“Adora, I really think-”

  
“Catra, fifty-two thousand people are going to be in severe pain. Your opinion is not going to stop me trying to help them.”  
“Well, count me out then. I can’t bear to sit around watching you drain your own life away, ignoring my opinion and refusing to let others help you. If you’re inevitably going to die sometime soon from your overgrown hero complex, I might as well start grieving now and get it over with!” She got up and leaped down to the roof of the neighbouring tower.  
“Catra, wait!”  
But she was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How am I going to resolve all of this in the next chapter?  
> Watch me.  
> I've spent my entire life hideously overestimating my own abilities and I'm not about to stop now.  
> aaaaaaa


	20. Flying Too Close to the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The clones of Etheria get their wings, and Catra and Adora take another step towards figuring out what to do with the rest of their lives.

Catra reached Dryl several days later, riding on Melog which was good because she still had a hell of a hangover. As she dismounted outside Crypto Castle beneath a star-studded sky, she made a mental note never to get drunk with Double Trouble again.

The night before as she’d stopped in a clearing in the Finite Forests to make camp, her keen ears picked out the snap of a twig behind her. It was, of course, deliberate, since Double Trouble absolutely could go where they liked, absolutely silently, whenever they wanted. They smiled, a little slyly, as Catra pinned them to a tree, claws out and snarling with Melog bristling by her side.

“Good to see you too, kitten. Oh, and you as well, Melog! How are you, my fellow partner in disguise?”  
Melog hissed a little, but not very convincingly. They had a soft spot for Double Trouble. Having another shape-shifter around made them feel a little more like they belonged on this planet.  
“What do you want?” Catra growled.

“Oh, nothing. I was just passing through and saw the light of your fire, and thought I’d drop by to see if some weary traveller wanted to share a drink and a tale or two.”  
They held up a large bottle of wine. “I hear that Adora has been looking everywhere for you. Is the whole She-Ra thing getting on your nerves?”  
Catra faltered. “Actually, yeah. It really is.” she murmured.

Double Trouble was an exceptionally good listener. They said all the right things, like “Oh you poor thing” and “Tell me more” and “The audacity! How could she?”.  
Meanwhile, Melog slunk off into the night to warn Hordak and Entrapta of Catra’s imminent arrival. They weren’t sure exactly what she was planning to do, but they had no doubt it was something incredibly stupid. Melog could move exceptionally fast when they needed to, courtesy of their shapeshifting prowess. It wasn’t an ability they used often or revealed to anyone if they could help it, but on this night they decided that speed was necessary, and they crossed the distance like a bullet from a gun.

Once Catra had downed the last of the wine, hours later, she slumped back against a log and drawled, “So, whaddya think, DT? What should I do?”

Double Trouble blinked their side-slitted eyes politely and watched Melog creep silently back into the clearing. “You know I can’t tell you what to do, darling, but I really do think you were onto something when you were talking about collaborative thinking earlier. I can’t remember precisely what you said, but it was very inspirational!”  
Catra had said no such thing, of course, and probably couldn’t even spell “collaborative” but Double Trouble knew that the best way to give someone a good idea was to make them think they’d come up with it themselves. By this stage, Catra had raged, cried, run around the clearing miming out her issues, and talked herself into exhaustion, so she was in the perfect frame of mind – the only frame of mind – where she’d accept suggestions.

“Collaborative thinking...hmm...hmm-hah?” Catra yawned. “That means making....plans together you know....or something like that....”  
“Absolutely, kitten. You said half an hour ago...what was it...oh yes! That the key to good relationships is not compromise, but collaboration! That way, you can work out the best possible solution together. It’s such a brilliant notion: I simply must try it for myself.”  
“Yeaaaaahhhh....I did say something like that. Thanks for reminding me!”  
“Anytime. However, what’s certain is that tomorrow will be a big day for you, and you should get some sleep so you can face the day with a clear head. Goodnight Catra. Safe travels!”

Catra sleepily murmured her farewells and curled up beside Melog.  
Double Trouble smiled, just a little, and picked up the empty wine bottle before walking back into the darkness, confident that their work was done and they’d done all they could to keep Catra safe. Oh, she was razor-sharp and so stubborn when she was sober, but she was a sucker for wine when she was stressed out!

***

Catra entered Crypto Castle at 3 am, doubly cloaked by the darkness of the new-moon night and Melog’s invisibility shield. She’d calculated that at this hour, not even Entrapta would be awake, or Steve. She suppressed a shudder. Steve was Hordak’s pet Eldritch horror. They’d lived in the roof of the castle until Hordak had coaxed them out with offerings of fried fish and bits of shiny metal, and decided that compared to the behemoth horrors of the Void, Steve’s six-legged form with its white-ringed eyes and grinning mouth, was quite un-intimidating, actually. They made a good guard but tended to doze off a bit in the early hours of the morning when there weren’t so many moths to chase.

Together, Catra and Melog crept through the winding, empty halls, and twisted, trap-infested passageways. After months of visiting Crypto Castle regularly, Catra had gotten quite good at navigating it, although she still took a few wrong turns and ended up cursing quietly in the bottom of yet another pit that had opened in the floor. Since the addition of the clones, Entrapta had thankfully made escape routes for all of her traps and dulled the points on most of the spikes, but it was the noise of them going off that Catra wanted to avoid.

They reached the cavernous laboratory without being discovered, however, which in retrospect Catra should have found slightly suspicious. Towering stacks of tech loomed out of the shadows as they slunk in, searching. Hordak had imposed some semblance of order on the place, but there was still a definitive feeling that things were slowly taking on a life of their own, in some particularly dark corners. Just the way Entrapta liked it.

Somewhere toward the centre of the room, Catra could see a dim glow, so she headed towards it.  
“***Catra, what do you think you’re doing?***”  
“Shut up Melog. I’m trying to focus, here.”  
Ah. There it was. The Amplifier, a complex arrangement of crystals and lenses, illuminated by the faint light of the Portal to Nowhere and shedding a thousand tiny flecks of diffracted light so that the floor around it looked as though it had been blanketed by stars.

It was beautiful, thought Catra as she cautiously crept closer. She didn’t want to go any nearer to the Portal behind it than she absolutely had to. Stepping through that swirling, silvery vortex had left her feeling detached and ill for weeks afterward, and she was not keen to repeat the experience. Still, she had to get to that Amplifier. Had to see what it did, how it worked, and if it could be somehow sabotaged or changed or it there was something, anything at all that Entrapta had neglected to do which would make it safer for Adora to use.  
If necessary, she’d shatter it into a million pieces. Clones be damned, them, and their stupid wings.  
She extended one clawed hand toward it, and something blurred out of the shadows and knocked her flat. Within seconds, despite her best efforts to get away, she was pinned beneath a heavy, cold body with six jointed legs, and a grinning mouth crammed with jagged teeth.  
It was Steve. Dammit.

Cursing, Catra tried in vain to shield her face from Steve’s enthusiastic, slobbery greeting. Last time Catra had got their Eldritch-spit in her eyes, she’d unwillingly, and thankfully temporarily, gained the ability to see what she could only assume was a sixth-dimensional shadow spirit phasing though the ceiling, playing a harmonica made out of dark matter.

Something altogether more threatening than Steve dropped down from the ceiling like some kind of enormous purple spider: Entrapta. In the half-light, with her face hidden behind her bug-eyed mask and her snaking tendrils of hair flowing around her, she looked truly alien.  
“Heya Catra! Whatcha doing?” she asked, cheerily.  
“Oh, I just thought I’d drop by for a visit!” Catra snarked, finally wriggling free of Steve’s secondary grasping limbs. She rolled up onto her feet and assessed the situation, instinctively. Entrapta was standing just in front of the Amplifier; if Catra could just pretend to trip and fall over her own tail....no that was too obvious.

“Catra!” said Entrapta, a little sharply. “Why are you standing in a fighting stance?”  
“Um, I uh....” she edged her way closer, trying not to meet Entrapta’s accusing gaze. She didn’t want to hurt her, she just...  
“Catra, I’m warning you. Tell the truth.” This time, Entrapta was holding a shock baton and speaking with real purpose. Steve was standing protectively beside her with their ears pricked, glowering at Melog.

“Hey! Fine! I’m here to try and sabotage your latest project. But the shock baton? Really? I thought you forgave me!”  
“I did forgive you, Catra. That’s why I gave you a chance to come clean about why you were here. Forgiveness doesn’t mean blind stupidity. I’ve dialled the shock baton way down so it won’t knock you out, but I need you to know that I won’t let you hurt me again if I can help it. Now, let’s sit down and have a reasonable discussion about what’s going on here.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” Catra murmured. She’d never seen Entrapta look or sound so serious, and it made her feel incredibly guilty.

“Great! Hey Hordak! You win the bet; Catra WAS here to sabotage the Amplifier, so you can go make us some coffee!”  
Two burning red eyes opened in the darkness behind her, followed by a grinning mouth.

“Hello, Catra,” said Hordak, looking strangely amused as he stepped into the light and headed off towards the kitchens.  
“Don’t forget to add extra chocolate sprinkles to mine! Thanks, babe!” Entrapta yelled after him.

“Wait, Hordak WON the bet, so HE has to make us coffee?”  
“Yup! The coffee machine is so fun to use. So many little lights and buttons. It’s just about the only thing we ever argue about: who gets to make the coffee!”  
“That’s...actually so adorable and nerdy I actually wanna hurl. Eugh. Anyway, so what are you gonna do now? Lock me away and send me back to Brightmoon in disgrace? And how did you know I’d be here?”  
“Adora’s been calling every kingdom on Etheria three times a day, asking for any news of you. She’s so worried and scared you might do something dangerous and get hurt, so we’ve been keeping an eye out for ya!” She exchanged a not-so-subtle wink with Melog, which Catra chose to ignore, before continuing: “And no, we’re not locking you away or sending you anywhere in disgrace! We were really hoping you’d go back to Brightmoon with a good reason to be proud of yourself, instead!”

“Sooo, five minutes ago you were waving a shock baton in my face, and now you’re trying to inspire me? Why?”  
“Well, it’s simple really! Based on my observations of you during our time in the Fright Zone, punishment and imprisonment make you more resentful. The only valid use of incarceration is to remove an immediate threat until it can be properly resolved, and right now you don’t seem to be actively threatening me. Is that correct?”  
Catra looked very perplexed. “Yeah? I guess?”  
“Good, good. The Subject is no longer an active threat, proceed to Phase 2!” Entrapta muttered to her compad, typing rapidly.

“So you’ve really forgiven me, and you’re trying to help me, and this is not a joke?” Catra stammered.  
“Why would I make such a mean joke? And yes, for the second time, I have forgiven you for attempting to permanently dispose of me by sending me to what you presumed was a deadly toxic wasteland and was ACTUALLY a technological treasure trove! I haven’t got time in my life for resentment when there’s so much to discover! Less rage, more science, I always say!”  
“Gee thanks Entrapta, when you put it that way, it sounds....extra awful. Speaking of awful, what’s Phase 2? A pep talk? I’d actually rather be shot.”

“Unfortunately, Catra, despite your wishes I will not be shooting you,” Hordak remarked wryly, handing a steaming mug of black coffee to her, a mochaccino heaped with marshmallows to Entrapta, an affogato smelling suspiciously like brandy to Melog, a bucket of burnt coffee grounds for Steve, and sat down with his pumpkin spice latte.

“Great. Then I’ll have to settle for wishing you’d shot me in the Fright Zone.” Catra said, gloomily into her coffee.  
Melog shot her a disgusted look. “***Suicidal ideation? Really? Don’t you dare.***”  
“I know, Melog. I just feel like I can’t get anything right! It’s been almost a year since the war ended, and when push comes to shove I’m still pulling the same desperate, self-sabotaging sh*t.”

“Believe me, I know precisely how you feel.” Hordak nodded.  
“Seriously? You’re Mr. Reformed now, aren’t you? You even saved Angella’s life!”  
Hordak pointed wordlessly to a number of deep indentations and scorch marks in the wall. Beneath them lay the shattered remains of dozens of bots.

“So you have anger issues? Big deal.”  
“I cannot yet control my emotions fully, and I create destruction. It is problematic. Tell me Catra, what really brought you here today? What made you think that the destruction of the Amplifier would assist you?”

“I’m not even sure anymore. I guess I wanted to...take control of the situation. Protect Adora. Show her how much it hurts me when it feels like she keeps choosing to be a hero over me. I’m so afraid that one day she’ll die, or leave me for some “greater cause.” Again.”  
“You feel that we would willingly put Adora at unnecessary risk?” Hordak quirked an eyebrow.  
“Well, I....you...she nearly died last time she went into that stupid Portal, okay! I mean, you did take every precaution and you did hurl yourself in there to save her...” she trailed off, looking at the ragged scars that still marked Hordak’s wings and neck.

“Then you fear that we will have miscalculated again?”  
“Yeah. I know you’ll be right there protecting her, and Entrapta is literally the smartest person on the face of Etheria....actually look. It’s not about the Amplifier. Not really.”

Catra got up and began pacing, gesturing vehemently as she talked. “It’d be fine if I knew that it was just this one last thing she had to do. It’s a great and worthy cause and all that, but I know there will be a hundred more things after that. I’m afraid I’ll never get to spend time with her and I’ll always feel like I’m second best. She’s all I’ve got! All I’ve ever really had. I’ve never really felt like I belonged anywhere or had something to call my own, so I set my sights on Adora. I thought that as long as we were together, everything would be fine and nothing else in the whole world could hurt me.” She sighed heavily, tail curled around her. Steve whined and thumped their three tails against the ground, and she scritched him gently behind the ears. “It’s alright, Steve. Thank you for your concern. Anyway, now we can all see how wrong I was. It’s like...I love Adora and I need her so desperately that I keep hurting her AND myself. I don’t understand.”

Hordak nodded sympathetically and downed the last of his coffee. “Believe me, Catra, I know what it is to feel like flotsam, adrift, and washed up on some foreign shore.”  
Catra’s ears drooped. “Sometimes I feel like I’m floating, above all of this, and my feet have never quite hit the ground in any place I felt at home. I feel so disconnected and lost.”  
“Like one of those loose bolts you find inside machines that you KNOW are really important, but you just can’t figure out where they fit?” Entrapta asked.  
“Uh...actually, yeah, that’s...that’s pretty much how it feels. I don’t know where I fit in.”  
Hordak listened carefully and thought for a moment. “Come with me, Catra. There’s something I need to show you.”

***

All five of them, Steve included, crammed into the elevator to the rooftop. They stepped out under a blanket of stars, resplendent in Etheria’s deep purple skies.  
“Do you know what stars really are, Catra?” Hordak asked.  
“Nope! I guess they’re something that’s on fire somewhere out in space?  
Entrapta, of course, had a ten-minute long educational, animated PowerPoint ready to go.

“So, I’m supposed to believe,” said Catra, incredulously, ten minutes later, “that there's this force called gravity which pulls everything together, and Etheria is spinning around a star which is a great big burning ball of gas, and that star, and all those stars out there are also hurtling through space, rotating around the centre of the galaxy, which is also moving? Basically, everything is very big and very spinny?”

“Correct,” said Hordak.

Entrapta’s eyes were lit up like rubies as she bounced on her toes and stared skyward, enthralled, as if the stars were made of the purest diamond. “Isn’t space amazing?” she enthused.  
“Yeah. Yeah, actually, it is. It looks so...big and so beautiful. It’s the wildest thing I’ve ever seen, and somehow it makes me feel so calm.” Catra replied contemplatively, head tipped to one side.  
Hordak smiled. “The vastness of space is both disconcerting and comforting, depending on one’s frame of mind, and it becomes more so, the more one knows about it. For instance, it is estimated that perhaps eighty-five percent of those points of light we call stars are not one star, but two sharing the same system. They are called binary stars.”

“Woah. You mean, even stars aren’t alone out there? Is that what you’re trying to say to me, that Adora and I are destined to be together, like binary stars?”  
“Yes. And no. And perhaps.” he answered, chuckling a little. “I have no right to say what your destiny is, and I am a firm believer, now, that we must write our own.”  
“Good. Because I don’t believe in stupid sh*t like the stars telling me what I have to do. It’s bad enough having people ordering me around.” Catra wrapped her arms around herself, frowning. Melog looked up at her. “Mrr?” they said, questioningly.  
“But sometimes, just every now and then, I do wish that the path before me was a little clearer.”

“That is a fair perspective to have, Catra,” said Hordak. “But the advice I have for you is much more...vague. You see, even binary stars are not orbiting one another, nor do they become one amalgamous mass. They are separate bodies that orbit their common centre of mass; that is, they are pulled together by what they have in common. And they, in turn, orbit the centre of their galaxy. Even the galaxies themselves, as vast as they are, are moving as space expands outwards, and smaller galaxies orbit the larger ones. Everything in the universe pursues something greater than itself.”

“And your point is?”

“His point is that you and Adora need to have a common goal or reference point, outside of your relationship and yourselves, in order for the relationship to work. Also, you really need to stop comparing yourself to her. You are not second best and you have nothing to prove.” Entrapta summarised.

Catra looked very much taken aback but nodded.

“My apologies,” continued Hordak, “My abilities to communicate are still somewhat lacking. Let me attempt to tell a story: Once upon a time, a subject who had served his ruler faithfully was discarded for a flaw he neither caused nor controlled. Instead of realising the injustice of his former commander, he set out on a disastrous mission to regain his favour.”

“Okay, okay. So, that was you, and you’re saying that you did something really dumb because you had no reference point outside of Four-Eyes Prime? Everything you ever did was centred around that one asshole.”  
“She’s got it!” yelled Entrapta.  
“But wait, Adora isn’t a bad person. She’s just....almost too dumb to be alive, sometimes.”  
“She hasn’t quite got it!” yelled Entrapta, a little more sedately.

“No, no.” Hordak laughed. “Adora is a good person. Her motives are kind, worthy, and just. What I wanted to say is that when our entire world is centred on one person, we lose perspective. Our actions can become correspondingly warped. I had to learn not to let my life revolve around Entrapta because there is a danger that I may repeat the same mistakes I made when serving Horde Prime. Entrapta is a good person, but she is not infallible, and neither am I. We must place our guiding principles outside of ourselves and even our closest relationships.”

“Riiight, so what exactly ARE your guiding principles, and how do those help you?”

Entrapta smiled. “Hordak and I are great partners because we have a shared goal: the pursuit of scientific truth and knowledge. Even though we may disagree on some of the finer points of scientific methodology sometimes, having an external reference point stops us from becoming too focussed on ourselves, to the detriment of everything else. He helps me stay focussed, and I remind him to not get frustrated by failure. Having common values pulls us together, and together we are pulled into the mystery and wonder of the universe!”

“Like gravity?”  
“Yes. Like gravity.”

***

Fourty-two minutes to firing:  
The earth trembled beneath the feet of all fifty-something thousand Etherian clones as they marched in orderly lines out of the colossal portal, and into the vast basin where they had once fought the fateful final battle against the Alliance.  
As a way of solving their inevitable transportation crisis, Hordak had created this monstrosity of a terrestrial portal and made twenty other, smaller portals distributed across Etheria. Nearby settlements of clones thus only had to travel to the nearest entry-portal to reach the basin where they’d gain their wings.

“It is not my most elegant work,” Hordak said, surveying the immense structure before them with a critical eye. “Never did I think that I would create something powered by such simple nuclear reactors, but it is the best I could do at short notice.”  
“Well, it works!” said Bow, admiringly. He hadn’t even known what a nuclear reactor was until a week ago, and he’d begged and pleaded until Hordak had allowed him to help set them up.  
“Considering that you couldn’t use First One's Crystals for power, since we need all the latent magic in the area we can get, I think you’ve done amazingly!” Entrapta commented, approvingly, as she bounded down from the highest point on the clifftops, where she’d been busy working on the Portal to Nowhere and making some last-minute adjustments to the Amplifier.  
“Thank you, dearest. After the exceptional work you and Hermann have done on clone nutrition, I feel as though my contributions are hardly worth mentioning!”  
“You know that’s nonsense, Hordak, but to tell you the truth I’d be very glad to never have to compile lists of amino acids found in Etherian mushrooms, ever again, and I don’t even want to look at a mushroom for at least a month. Fungi are so disconcerting, anyway: they’re basically living decay.” She checked the time on her compad. “The princesses should be--  
\--oh look, here they are! Right on time!” She waltzed off to meet them as they landed aboard Opallie’s back. Catra and Adora had come on Swiftwind, and were standing a little ways away, talking, their faces serious.

***

Thirty minutes to firing:  
“I’m not joining the other clones if Asterio won’t ever be able to fly!” Vex insisted.  
“Go, you stupid boy! Take the opportunity set before you, even if Prime robbed me of the same with his poison, and enjoy every moment of it for me, won’t you?”  
Entrapta landed beside them with a thump and a knowing grin. “Good thing I made Asterio this surprise present, then?”  
Wings, mechanical and gleaming in the sun, unfolded in her outstretched hands and lifted themselves onto Asterio’s wasted shoulders, clothing him in steely strength.

***

Seventeen minutes to firing:  
Adora stood on the clifftops alone, looking down the flashing length of her sword. Soon, she’d have to believe she had the power to use it to channel more energy than the Heart of Etheria had held. But this time, this time the Sword would bring healing, and not destruction. Healing was always harder.  
She hoped she had it in her. 

  
Below her, even numbed with scorpion venom, the clones' shoulders were burning, fierce and hot.

***

Five minutes to firing:  
Catra stood with her back braced against She-Ra’s, just inside the Portal. Beside her stood Emily, Melog, and Hordak. She could feel She-Ra shaking, as she stood at the ready.  
“I’m here, Adora. I’ve got your back. I’ve got you.” She reached back and squeezed her hand.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Catra. I’m good at hitting things and destroying stuff, but healing more than fifty thousand clones?”  
“If anyone can, it’s you. I know you don’t understand this whole She-Ra thing, yet, and I’ve been thinking it must have been hard, trying to figure it out, mostly on your own.”  
“It was awful.”  
“I know. So this time, I’m not letting you do it alone. We’ll work this out together, the way we always have. You’re my best friend, Adora. I can’t carry the sword for you, but I can carry you.”  
She-Ra managed a brave, watery smile. “Thank you, Catra. And if it means anything, I’ll always have your back, too. This time, I’m not leaving you, even if I have to carry you away unconscious.”

Catra laughed, ragged, and wild.  
“We’ve got this Adora, we’ve got this. You’re not alone and you never will be.”

And she wasn’t, not at all. Just outside the Portal stood Glimmer, and Micah, and Castaspella and Angella, with all the sorcerers of Mystacor. They’d come with every healing and restoration and growth spell they knew, to pour it all into the Amplifier. Even if it made only the tiniest difference, they’d be damned if they weren’t doing this together.

***

Zero:  
Adora shot straight from the heart. The beam of searing white passed down the blade of her sword, through the Portal, to join the magic of Etheria in pinks and purples and blues as it struck the first lense of the Amplifier. It lit up like a chandelier, and the crystals hummed as they filled, refracted, and discharged a wave of light that came racing over the sea of clones. It crested, broke, and washed over them, lifting them off their feet.  
It found the beating hearts in every nervous chest, raced down nerves and capillaries, and pulsed through their entire bodies. Cells divided, changed, grew. Muscles formed on frames of bone and sinew, rapidly covered by iridescent skin in every colour possible, or even, in some cases, impossible.

Minutes later, Adora stepped out of the Portal with Catra to see that the sea of clones now had sails; their wings opened and trembling with new life in the Etherian afternoon sun.

***

Vex was the first off the ground. He’d spent months by now practicing flapping his half-formed wings. It had eased the growing pains a little, and what a joy it was to see them now, fully-formed and glinting like opals shot through with veins of fiery orange.  
He took to the air after a few failed attempts and was surprised by how instinctive flying was once he was up, though he didn’t dare to fly too high. Asterio joined him moments later, laughing and delighted with his own wings. He hadn’t been able to walk since he arrived on Etheria, and he certainly couldn't remember any other time he’d ever felt so free.

High above, Opallie and Swiftwind were circling, watching the clones with a wary eye to see that none got into trouble as they tested their new powers of flight.  
Within a few hours, all of them had at least managed to take off and land once or twice, with varying degrees of success. What didn’t vary at all was their all-consuming euphoria with their new wings and tails. Shouts of happiness and laughter rang across the valley all afternoon long.

***

As the shadows grew long, Hordak found Catra sitting on a rocky outcrop, watching the beautiful chaos unfold all around her. She-Ra was up on Swiftwind, herding a flock of overenthusiastic clones away from the cliff faces nearby.

“Did you and Adora come to any conclusions?” he asked her, taking a seat beside her.

“Hmm, I guess we did. I’m still thinking it through. I’m not sure exactly what it is that I’m supposed to do with my life now, if I’m going to accept Adora being She-Ra, and working out what means for her. I guess I’ll be her sidekick, for now.” Catra replied.

She-Ra leaped from Swiftwind's back as he passed over, and landed neatly beside her, sword in hand. “You’re no sidekick, Catra,” she said, grinning. “Remember, you’re the one who kicked my ass, over and over during the war. Honestly, I could use some training from you!”  
“Oh, believe me, I’ll never forget that, and I’ll make sure you always remember it too,” Catra smirked. “But if I’m not a sidekick, then what am I?”

Beside her, Hordak had spotted a tiny speck winging its way determinedly upwards. Leaping to his feet, he shouted, “Icarus, you stupid bastard! Get back here!” and took off in a hurry.  
He caught the clone as he fell, moments later, and dropped him off on Opallie's back as she flew by to help.

“There’s always that one idiot who flies too close to the sun,” Hordak grumbled, landing again.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Adora, leaning back against Catra.

“It’s an old Horde saying, taken from times when we flew into new star-systems. Occasionally, there would be a pilot who thought he could be a little relaxed with his calculations and exit the portal too close to the sun. We lost three interstellar cruisers that way before Horde Prime stopped letting younger clones fly his ships. They think they’re bulletproof when they're newly decanted, and they push it too far.” Hordak replied, shaking his head disapprovingly as he watched Icarus slide off Opallie’s back to the ground, none the worse for wear.

“But pushing it too far is half the fun! It’s what makes scientific experimentation possible!” teased Entrapta as she scrambled up to join them. Hordak huffed, and barely suppressed a smile as she flopped down beside him, resting her head against his shoulder.

“They push it too far, huh? Sounds like someone I know.” Catra grinned, punching Adora’s shoulder playfully. Her pupils widened as the idea struck her.

“Adora, I know what I am! You’re the idiot, and I’ll be the one who stops you flying too close to the sun. I’ll try to catch you when you fall, but I’ll make no promises about you landing on your feet! If you land on your butt, I will laugh at you, and I will teach you how to kick everyone else’s butt. Agreed?”  
Adora laughed. “Agreed.”

The Etherian sun set as they sat together on those rocky cliffs, and the air was golden and heavy with magic, flickering in all colours as it passed through the wings of thousands of clones.

***

The End

***

"I know I took the path that you would never want for me  
I know I let you down, didn't I?  
So many sleepless nights where you were waiting up on me  
Well I'm just a slave unto the night

Now remember when I told you that's the last you'll see of me  
Remember when I broke you down to tears  
I know I took the path that you would never want for me  
I gave you hell through all the years

So I, I bet my life, I bet my life  
I bet my life for you  
I, I bet my life, I bet my life  
I bet my life for you

I've been around the world and never in my wildest dreams  
Would I come running home to you  
I've told a million lies but now I tell a single truth  
There's you in everything I do

Now remember when I told you that's the last you'll see of me  
Remember when I broke you down to tears  
I know I took the path that you would never want for me  
I gave you hell through all the years

So I, I bet my life, I bet my life  
I bet my life for you  
I, I bet my life, I bet my life  
I bet my life for you

Don't tell me that I'm wrong  
I've walked that road before  
And left you on your own  
And please believe them when they say  
That it's left for yesterday  
And the records that I've played  
Please forgive me for all I've done

So I, I bet my life, I bet my life  
I bet my life for you  
I, I bet my life, I bet my life  
I bet my life for you."

Benjamin Arthur Mckee / Daniel Platzman / Daniel Coulter Reynolds / Daniel James Platzman / Daniel Wayne Sermon. (2014). I Bet My Life. (Song). On Smoke+Mirrors. Imagine Dragons. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. Finally, I've reached the end! I stayed up till 4am finishing this chapter since it took so long to write that I eventually started having vivid dreams about my leopard gecko growing wings.  
> There will be an epilogue, and then I'll probably take a break for a few weeks to work on other projects.  
> I've already started working on the next "book" in this series, "The Fulbrights" which will feature more clones! adventure! She-Ra! Catra being awesome! Fankids! Space! and more.  
> So if you've enjoyed this story, keep an eye out for it.


	21. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have some more fluff.

The fire crackled merrily in the little clearing near Brightmoon, illuminating the faces of those seated around it with a golden glow. Bow was re-telling the story of Glimmer giving up her Queendom when her mother returned, to everyone's general amusement.  
"And then she HURLED her crown across the room to Angella, and yelled, "Goodbye, responsibility!"  
Catra laughed so hard at this that she fell off her log, almost pulling Adora down with her. "Ah, Glimmer! I'll bet Angella-"

She froze, abruptly, staring into the darkness across the clearing with eyes as wide as saucers. Something big was coming towards them.  
Several somethings.  
Three, or maybe four of them, all with glowing eyes, the largest of which definitely had far more than a regular number of teeth, and very un-nerving white eyes, were out there and getting closer by the second.  
Just as Adora went to unsheath her sword, the firelight caught the sharp edges of Hordak's face as he stepped into the clearing with Entrapta, Steve and Emily.

“Oh, thank goodness it’s just you guys!" Bow said, with one hand still clutched to his chest over his thumping heart. "We thought it was something big and scary with sharp teeth and glowing eyes!"  
Hordak grinned. “I am big and scary. My teeth are sharp and my eyes do glow. Entrapta is formidable in her own right and we have an armed robot and a small Eldritch horror." His pointed fangs flashed crimson red as he spoke. 

"But we have not come to harm you. We come bearing these...sugared confections" He held up a bag -more like a sack really- stuffed to the brim with marshmallows. "Apparently, it is your custom to partially burn them over an open flame before consumption.”  
"MARSHMALLOWS!" yelled Frosta, delighted.  
"And I brought the tiny hot chocolates! Steve, no jumping! Good abomination!" Entrapta added, holding up an improbably large thermos flask with one ponytail and an array of little mugs with the other. Steve wagged their tails and bounced off to chase a moth.

“Well, scary or not," said Adora, her voice muffled by the marshmallows she'd already stuffed into her mouth, "At least Hordak doesn’t have four eyes like Horde Prime!”  
Hordak grimaced. “Yes, and he had the audacity to call me defective when his eyes were looking in three different directions simultaneously. "  
“I’d be glad you threw him off that bridge even if it was just so we didn’t have to look into those creepy eyes again!” Glimmer chuckled.

Hordak nodded his agreement, and he and Entrapta seated themselves beside Scorpia.  
"So, Scorpia!" Entrapta smiled, handing her a steaming mug of hot chocolate, "How are things going in your kingdom? It was so nice visiting you last week: I do miss those old Fright Zone days sometimes!"  
"It's going so good, actually! We had some fun times as the Super Pal Squad when we weren't doing particularly morally questionable things, didn't we? Hey, remember that time when we corrupted Adora's sword with that evil crystal thing?"  
"Oh my gosh, she was so out of it!" Catra sniggered. "She went mental and tried to kill me, and then when we got the sword off her she was all dopey!"  
"Ha, hah, verrry funny." Adora rolled her eyes, which just had the effect of making Catra, who was perhaps a little tipsy, laugh even harder. 

Scorpia chuckled. "I am so glad we're all friends now! It's just, you know, really nice. Everything is so great: the war is over, I have a kingdom and electricity powers, Perfuma is teaching me how to grow flowers, there are more Scorpions-"  
-"wait! That's what I was going to tell you!" She waved her claws excitedly. "Lesath and Antares have just had a baby! A perfect little scorpion baby! It's the first child born in the Scorpion Kingdom in almost two decades!"  
"A BABY SCORPION? That's AWESOME! Congratulations!" exclaimed Frosta.  
"I know, I'm just so happy for them!" said Scorpia, getting a little misty-eyed. "Antares was so afraid that the war would start again, but Lesath, she told him that everything would be ok and she- she asked him to marry her the day after Huntara brought them home. Their wedding was so beautiful!" she cried. "Perfuma did the flowers and Double Trouble made the wedding dress and everyone was so happy. I just can't believe that I get to be Queen of such wonderful, hopeful subjects and I'm so proud of them all!"   
"That's wonderful news!" Glimmer smiled. "Do you think you could ask them if we can visit sometime? I want to make sure that Brightmoon makes every Scorpion feel welcomed on Etheria, this time," she asked, a little shyly.  
"Oh of course! They're having a party in a few weeks to celebrate, and you're all invited!"

***

That party, although much quieter than the post-war celebration, was the most memorable one Glimmer had ever attended. She came with her parents, bearing an exquisite little floating nightlight that lit up in all the colours of the rainbow. They had made ittogether from magic, moon dust, and gold. Antares cupped it carefully in one claw, his other arm around Lesath's waist, as they watched the light change from soft pink to mauve.  
Baby Ngamarama clapped her tiny pincers together and gurgled in wonder at Angella as she held her, gently, as though she were made of glass. "She's beautiful." Micah murmured softly. Angella nodded, and tears pricked her eyes as she looked at Scorpia and Ngamarama: two babies who had bookended the beginning and the end of a war between them.

***

Hordak flew home that evening with a smile that didn't fade for days. He glanced down at Entrapta, hair streaming behind her in the wind. He and Vex were carrying her in a sling between them, and she absolutely loved being up here in the cool, rushing air.   
She waved up at him, eyes aglow. "Hey, Hordak! Look at the stars! They're many lightyears away, but tonight, they look close enough to touch."  
"One day, I'll take you to see some of them, I promise." He grinned. His heart had never been so full.

Tomorrow, Imp was coming to visit again with Kyle and Rogelio, and they were going to show him some more of the sign-language they'd been teaching to Imp. Hordak had been practicing signing "hello" and "goodbye" and "pass the soldering iron" with Entrapta for weeks. She had students now, three Elberonian teenage girls who came to stay once a month to learn about robotics, and next week Hordak would have a student of his own: a boy named Arthur that he'd made powered armor for after his back was broken during Horde Prime's relentless bombing. Arthur's mother had been understandably frightened of Hordak, at first, but after she saw her son's remarkable progress as he learned to walk, she'd invited Hordak and Entrapta round for dinner one night and they'd been good friends ever since. 

Vex would soon be teaching in a nearby village. He'd shown remarkable prowess in mathematics in particular, and Hordak would swear his markings glowed even brighter when he was teaching. Tonight, in the light of the stars and the six rising moons, the two clones were iridescent as they flew, beating their wings in great, slow, synchronised strokes. Horde Prime had tried his hardest to bleach all the colour and personality out of them, but now they almost lit up the dark.

The largest of the moons, Desiderata, was rising over Crypto castle as they landed in the courtyard. Entrapta climbed out of the sling, thanked Vex, and began undoing the harness from around their waists.  
She stood tucked under one of Hordak's wings when she was done, the harness and sling concealed in one of her many enormous pockets, and together they stared at the moon. Its newest, enormous crater, the aptly-named "Victory" would mark its surface forever. What remained of Horde Prime's ship drifted in millions of pieces in orbit around it, glinting in its soft light.  
Entrapta squeezed Hordak's hand. "We did that," she said, proudly.  
Hordak smiled. "We certainly did."  
After all those years of blood and turmoil, after all the reconciliation and the tears and the messy aftermath, there was peace and a kind of gentle contentment that was, in itself, a form of quiet rebellion against the war and all the pain he had felt. 

His name was Hordak, and he had made a life of his own.

***  
"Tonight I am feeling for you  
Under the state of a strange land  
You have sacrificed much to be here  
There but for grace, as I offer my hand  
Welcome home, I bid you welcome, I bid you welcome  
Welcome home from the bottom of my heart

Out here on the edge  
The empire is fading by the day  
And the world is so weary in war  
Maybe we'll find that new way

So welcome home, see I made a space for you now  
Welcome home from the bottom of our heart  
Welcome home from the bottom of our hearts  
Keep it coming now keep it coming now  
You'll find most of us here with our hearts wide open  
Keep it coming now keep on coming now   
Keep it coming now keep on coming now

There's a woman with her hands trembling,  
Haere mai  
And she sings with a mountain's memory  
Haere mai

There's a cloud the full length of these isles  
Just playing chase with the sun  
And it's black and it's white and it's wild  
All the colours are one

So welcome home, I bid you welcome, I bid you welcome  
Welcome home from the bottom of our hearts  
Welcome home, see I made a space for you now  
Welcome home from the bottom of our hearts  
From the bottom of our hearts."

Dave Dobbyn. (2006). Welcome Home. (Song). On Available Light. Dave Dobbyn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah man, I enjoyed writing this so much. All twenty-one chapters!  
> I wanted everything to kind of come full circle, back to my personal headcanon about what started the war on Etheria.   
> Also, consider: baby Scorpion!  
> The name "Ngamarama" is a stunningly beautiful Maori name which roughly means "The first light of the dawn of the world " or so my friend Ngamarama tells me. Anyway, she's the funniest person I know, and she deserves to have a character named after her.
> 
> It's made me extraordinarily happy to write about the clones. To me, they are a people stripped of identity, colour, and culture, which is an absolutely devastating concept. Who was Horde Prime, once? What did he leave behind in pursuit of war? His clones embody the sorrow I have seen in my family, as we were forced to leave our home country and start a new life on the other side of the world, the strength I see in my grandfather, born into and broken by war, and the truly extraordinary, difficult, terrible, wonderful things I see in the country I now call my home, as people of all cultures collide and we reconcile what we once were with who we are becoming and seek to heal the hurts of colonisation. 
> 
> The song at the end is one of my all-time favourites, and it makes me cry every single damn time I hear it. 
> 
> I really hope you've enjoyed this story, but more than that, I hope that writing it has made me a better person.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is dedicated to my insomnia, and the particular brand of peacefulness one may find at 2 am in suburbia. It is very long and focusses on several major characters, but my personal bias is towards Hordak and Entrapta. I wrote this in a flurry of COVID-19-lockdown-induced enthusiasm and it just kept getting longer and longer! I'm putting it out here in the hopes that someone else will enjoy it. I loved writing it!


End file.
